CoUege  of  ^IbPJSicianss  anti  burgeons 
Hibrarp 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arcinive 

in  2010  witin  funding  from 

Open  Knowledge  Commons 


http://www.archive.org/details/historyofsanitatOOcosg 


History  of  Sanitation 


By  J.  J.  COSGROVE 


Author  of 


Principles   and    Practice  of   Plumbing,"    "Sewage    Purification 
and  Disposal,"   "Wrought  Pipe  Drainage  Systems," 
and    "Plumbing  Plans  and   Specifications" 


Published  by 

Standard  S^amlavS^Xtft^.Co* 

PITTSBURGH,  U.  S.  A. 


Copyright    IIKW  by   Staiulard  Sanitary   Mf({-   '-o.,   I'ittsliurnh,    I'.  S.  A. 


1^,  '^IH-^^ 


Preface 

When  the  manuscript  for  this  volume  was  prepared, 
there  was  no  decided  intention  of  publishing  it  in  book 
form.  Originally  it  was  intended  to  appear  as  a  serial  in 
"  Modern  Sanitation,"  and  grew  out  of  a  request  from  the 
Editor  of  that  magazine  to  write  an  article  that  would  trace 
the  advancement  made  in  sanitation  from  its  earliest  stages 
to  the  present  time. 

Sanitation  has  been  given  but  little  thought  by  histori- 
ans, consequently,  considerable  study  and  research  were 
necessary  to  dig  from  musty  tomes  and  ancient  records  a 
story  that  would  prove  interesting  and  instructive.  Having 
succeeded  in  gathering  together  much  of  interest  to  sani- 
tarians, and  in  view  of  the  fact  that  no  other  history  of 
sanitation  was  ever  written,  the  work  was  deemed  worthy 
of  a  more  permanent  place  in  literature,  and  it  was  decided 
to  put  it  forth  in  more  enduring  form.  The  book  is  there- 
fore offered  to  the  public  with  the  fervent  hope  that  those 
who  read  its  pages  will  derive  as  much  pleasure  as  did  the 
author  in  preparing  the  manuscript. 


J.    J.    COSGROVE 


Philadelphia,    Pennsylvania 

February   15th,    1909 


Publisher's   Note 

THE  primary  object  of  our  organization  is,  as  is  universally 
known,  to  manufacture  and  market  '*M>^eMda,vd"  Plumbing 
Fixtures,  Brass  Goods  and  other  products  made  in  our  factories. 
In  the  development  of  an  organization  to  accomplish  this  result, 
there  has  been  established  an  Advertising  and  Publishing 
Department  of  no  small  proportions,  and  the  "History  of  Sani- 
tation "  is  simply  the  outgrowth  of  the  work  of  this  department. 
This  brief  statement  will,  we  believe,  serve  to  give  the  public  a 
clear  understanding  of  our  somewhat  unique  position  of  being  at 
the  same  time  manufacturers  and  publishers. 

The  first  serious  work  of  the  Publishing  Department  on  a 
large  scale  was  "Modern  Sanitation"  (established  June,  1904). 
From  this  came  the  publication,  first  in  serial  form  and  later  as 
a  book,  of  J.  J.  Cosgrove's  first  work,  "Principles  and  Practice 
of  Plumbing"  (book  published  December,  1906).  The  phenome- 
nal success  of  the  book  is  a  matter  of  general  knowledge, 
although  it  may  not  be  widely  known  that  "  Principles  and  Prac- 
tice of  Plumbing  "  has  been  adopted  as  a  text  book  in  more  than 
thirty  universities  and  colleges  in  the  United  States,  and  bids 
fair  to  be  adopted  in  others.  This  magnificent  achievement  has 
been  accomplished  solely  on  the  merit  of  the  work  and  without 
solicitation  on  the  part  of  either  the  author  or  publisher. 

There  is  now  offered  almost  simultaneously  two  new  books 
by  Mr.  Cosgrove,  one  being  the  volume  in  hand  and  the  other 
"Sewage  Purification  and  Disposal." 

In  "  History  of  Sanitation,"  "Sewage  Purification  and  Dis- 
posal" and  "  Principles  and  Practice  of  Plumbing"  we  feel  that 
the  literature  of  the  craft  has  been  enriched  in  an  enduring  man- 
ner, and  that  we  have  fully  justified  our  appearance  in  the  field 
of  publishers  as  amply  as  we  have  our  standing  as  manufacturers 
of  a  world-wide  known  and  used  product, 

Standard  .Sanitary  11)^,  Co. 

Pittsburgh.  U.  S.  A. 

Publishin);if  Department 


Explanatory   Description   of    Full    Page 
Illustrations 

Ancient  Roman  Fountain  at  Corinth  ....         Page  6 

An  old  fountain  at  Corinth,  Greece,  whose  piping  and  stone  construc- 
tion date  from  about  the  time  of  the  Christian  era.  It  was  standing  here 
when  St.  Paul  lived  and  taught  in  Corinth,  and  is  still  the  only  source  of 
water  supply  for  a  large  contingent  of  Greek  housekeepers.  Drinking 
water  is  carried  home  in  jars,  but  washing  is  done  on  the  spot,  just  as  it 
was  centuries  ago. 

The  Roman  Aqueduct  of  Segovia,  Spain  .         ,         .         Page  36 

This  aqueduct  is  937  feet  long,  and  consists  of  320  arches  in  two  tiers, 
the  highest  arch  in  the  lower  tier  being  103  feet.  It  is  supposed  to  have 
been  built  in  the  time  of  Trajan. 

Segovia  was  an  ancient  Roman  city  located  in  old  Castile,  Spain,  and 
was  the  residence  of  the  kings  of  Leon  and  Castile. 

The  Oldest  Bathroom  in  the  World        ....         Page  76 

This  photograph  was  made  at  the  ruined  palace  and  fortress  of  Tiryns, 
in  Greece.  It  is  regarded  by  archaeologists  as  one  of  the  oldest  cities  in  the 
world,  and  is  mentioned  by  name  in  Greek  poetry  of  2,000  years  ago.  Its 
rulers  must  have  been  men  of  great  importance,  as  their  stone  palace 
(parts  of  its  walls  and  galleries  are  as  firm  and  solid  as  ever)  was  a  struc- 
ture of  splendid  dimensions  and  substantial  character. 

There  is  no  doubt  the  8  x  9-foot  slab  of  stone  seen  in  the  picture  formed 
the  floor  of  a  bathroom.  At  the  farther  edge  there  still  remains  the 
slanting  groove  cut  in  as  an  outlet  for  water. 

Bathing  and  Burning  Hindu  Dead  at  Benares        .        .         Page  90 

Dipping  a  corpse  in  the  holy  waters  of  the  Ganges  River  before  burn- 
ing it  on  the  bank— a  daily  occurrence  at  Benares,  India.  Some  worshipper 
may  very  likely  drink  the  water  only  twenty  feet  away. 

The  Fountain  of  Elisha Page  108 

The  waters  of  this  ancient  fountain  were  miraculously  sweetened  by 
the  Prophet  Elisha. 


Table  of  Contents 


Page 


Chapter  I 

Sanitation    of    Primitive    Man — Early    Wells — Rebekah    at    the 

Well— Joseph's  Well— Well  at  the  Rancho  Chack         .  .  1 

Chapter  II 

Cisterns — Early  Mention  of  Cisterns — Cisterns  of  Carthage — 
Early  Methods  of  Raising  Water — Water  Carriers — Pool  of 
Siloam — Pool  of  Solomon — Aqueducts — Carthagenian  Aque- 
duct— Aqueducts  of  Rome — Aqueduct  of  Segovia,  Spain — 
Trophies  of  Marius         ........  7 

Chapter  III 

Early  Sewage  Disposal — Removal  of  Offensive  Materials  from 
Temples  of  Jerusalem — Sewage  Systems  of  a  Pre-Babylonian 
City — Sewers  of  Rome — The  Cloaca  Maxima — The  Dejecti- 
Effusive  Act 39 

Chapter  IV 

Origin  of  Bathing — Early  Greek  Baths — Roman  Private  Baths — 
Public  Baths  of  Rome — Ruins  of  Baths  of  Caracalla — 
Description  of  the  Thermae — The  Thermae  of  Titus  at 
Rome — Baths  of  Pompeii — Heating  Water  for  Roman  Baths — 
Thermse  of  Titus  Restored     .         .         .         .         .         .         .         37 

Chapter  V 

Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire — Succeeding  Period  Known  as  the 
Dark  Ages — Sanitation  During  the  Dark  Ages — Beginning 
of  Material  Progress  in  Sanitation — Pilgrimage  to  Jugger- 
naut— Water  Supply  in  Paris — London  Water  Supply — Aque- 
duct of  Zempoala,  Mexico       .......         63 

Chapter  VI 

Introduction  of  Pumping  Machinery  into  Waterworks  Practice — 
The  Archimedes  Screw — Use  of  Pumps  in  Hanover,  Ger- 
many— First  London  Pump  on  London  Bridge — Savery  and 
Newcomen's  Pumping  Engine — The  Hydraulic  Ram — Pump- 
ing Engines  Erected  for  the  Philadelphia  Waterworks — Pipes 
for  Distributing  Water — Hydrants  and  Valves  for  Wooden 
Pipes — Data  Regarding  the  Use  of  Wooden  Pipes — Modern 
Pumping  Engines  ........         77 


Chaptek.  VII 

Page 

Early  British  Sewers— Sewer  in  the  Great  Hall  of  Westminster — 
Shape  of  Early  English  Sewers— Adoption  or  Recommenda- 
tion of  Pipe  Sewers — Early  Paris  Sewers— Paris  Sewers  of 
To-day — Lack  of  Sewage  Data  in  America — Effect  of  Mem- 
phis Epidemics  on  Sanitary  Progress    .....         85 

Chapter  VIII 

Sanitary  Awakening — Realization  of  the  Danger  of  Unwhole- 
some Water— Cholera  in  London  Traced  to  the  Broad  Street 
Pump — An  Historical  Stink 91 

Chapter  IX 

Introduction  of  Water  Filters— Striking  Example  of  the  Effi- 
ciency and  Value^Cholera  at  Altona  and  Hamburg— Puri- 
fication of  Sewage — The  Automatic  Scavenger  of  Mouras — 
Investigations  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health — 
Garbage  Destruction      ........       109 

Chapter  X 

Modern  and  Recent  Plumbing  Fixtures — Passing  of  the  Marble 
Lavatory — Public  Wash  Houses — Public  Comfort  Stations — 
Conclusion      ..........       119 


List  of  Illustrations 

1  Rebekah  at  the  Well 

2  Well  at  the  Rancho  Chack        .... 

3  Ancient  Roman  Fountain  at  Corinth 

4  The  Cisterns  at  Carthage  .... 

5  Pole  and  Bucket  for  Raising  Water  ... 

6  Ruins  of  Ancient  Cisterns        ..... 

7  Old  Roman  Water-Wheel 

8  Water  Carrier  with  Jar    ...... 

9  Water  Carrier  with  Goat-Skin  Bag  ... 

10  Pool  of  Siloam  ....... 

11  Pool  of  Solomon       ....... 

12  Aqueduct  near  Tunis,  Leading  to  Ancient  Carthage 

13  Ancient  Roman  Well        ...... 

14  Ruins  of  a  Roman  Aqueduct   ..... 

15  Distant  View  of  the  Claudia  Aqueduct    . 

16  Near  View  of  the  Claudia  Aqueduct 

17  Aqueduct  in  Ruins,  Ephesus  ..... 

18  Roman  Aqueduct,  Segovia,  Spain    .... 

19  Water  Tower  and  Roman  Ruins,  Chester,  England 

20  Roman  Water  Pipes,  made  of  Bored-out  Blocks  of  Stom 

21  Trophies  of  Marius  ..... 

22  Old  Roman  Lead  and  Terra  Cotta  Pipe  . 

23  The  Women's  Baths,  Pompeii 

24  The  Cloaca  Maxima.     From  an  old  woodcut   . 

25  The  Cloaca  Maxima.     From  a  recent  photograph 

26  Egyptian  Lady  Having  Head  Sprayed,  1700  B.  C 

27  Greek  Women  Bathing    .... 

28  Greek  Bath  Tubs 

29  The  Roman  Aqueduct  of  Segovia,  Spain 

30  Mosaic  from  Floor  of  Baths  of  Caracalla 

31  Ruins  of  the  Baths  of  Caracalla,  Rome 

32  Interior  of  the  Frigidarium,  Caracalla 

33  Outer  Row  of  Baths,  Caracalla,  Rome 

34  Thermae  of  Titus  at  Rome 

35  Clipeus.     From  an  old  woodcut 

36  Floor  Plan  of  the  Baths  of  Pompeii 

37  Frigidarium.     From  an  old  woodcut 

38  Atlantes 

39  Coppers  for  Heating  Water  in  Roman  Baths 

40  Ground  Plan  of  Thermae  of  Caracalla 

41  Hypocaust  for  Heating  Water,  Therms  of  Caracall 

42  Restoration  of  Thermae  of  Titus.     (Restored  by  Leclerc) 

43  Plan  of  the  Thermae  of  Titus,  R(mie.     (Restored  by  Leclerc) 

44  Sectional  Elevation,  Thernuc  of  Titus,  Rome 


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Page 

45  Frigidarium,    Thermse  of  Caracalla,   Rome.      (Restored  by 

Viollet-le-Duc.) 

46  Interior  View  of  Aqueduct,  Lisbon,  Portugal 

47  Destroyed  Lead  Font,  Great  Plumstead,  Norfolk    . 

48  Leaden  Cup,  of  the  time  of  Vespasian     .... 

49  Lead  Pipehead  and  Pipe  ...... 

50  Lead  Cistern  with  the  Arms  of  the  Fishmongers'  Company 

51  Car  of  Juggernaut  ....... 

52  Distant  View  of  Zempoala  Aqueduct,  Queretaro,  Mexico 

53  Near  View  of  Zempoala  Aqueduct,  Mexico 

54  Zempoala  Aqueduct.     From  an  old  print 

55  The  Oldest  Bathroom  in  the  World  .... 

56  Savery's  Engine       ........ 

57  Newcomen's  Engine  ....... 

58  Pump  House,  Philadelphia       ...... 

59  Wooden  Boilers  used  in  Philadelphia  Water  Supply 

60  Bored-out  Log  Pipe,  used  in  British  Columbia 

61  Valve  for  Wooden  Pipes  used  in  Philadelphia  Water  Supply      83 

62  Hydrant  for  Wooden  Pipes  used  in  Philadelphia  Water  Supply       82 

63  Modern  Vertical  Triple-Expansion  Pumping  Engine 

64  Aqueduct  Crossing  the  Alcantara  Valley 

65  Bathing  and  Burning  Hindu  Dead  at  Benares 


66  Map  Showing  Relation  of  Cholera  and  the  Broad  Street  Pump  92 

67  York  Survey  of  the  Broad  Street  Pump 101 

68  The  Fountain  of  Elisha 108 

69  Map  Showing  Location  of  Cases  of  Cholera  in  Hamburg  and 

Altona 110 

70  New  York  Public  Baths 118 

71  Bathroom  of  the  Early  Seventies     .          .          .          .          .          .  119 

72  One  Stage  in  the  Evolution  of  the  Porcelain  Enameled  Bath  .  120 

73  A  Slop  Sink  of  Long  Ago 120 

74  Bath  Tub  Encased  in  Woodwork 121 

75  An  Old  Marble-Top  Lavatory 121 

76  A  Modern  Porcelain  Enameled  Lavatory         ....  122 

77  Present  Stage  in  the  Evolution  of  Porcelain  Enameled  Baths  123 

78  A  Twentieth  Century  Bathroom 124 


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^;-iW|J|t!4^\^!l'-ii-^!4U].jvUJjjju.im4 


This  group  of  statuary  is  now  in  the  Vatican,  Rome 


Synopsis  of  Chapter.    Sanitation  of  Primitive  Man— Early  Wells— Rebekah 
at  the  Well— Joseph's  Well— The  Rancho  Chack. 

HISTORY  repeats  itself.  The  march  of  progress  is 
onward,  ever  onward,  but  it  moves  in  cycles.  A 
center  of  civilization  springs  up,  flourishes  for  a 
time  then  decays;  and  from  the  ashes  of  the  perished  civil- 
ization, phoenix-like,  there  springs  a  larger,  grander,  more 
enduring  civilization.  Nowhere  in  the  cycle  of  progress  is 
this  more  noticeable  than  in  the  history  of  sanitation. 
Centers  of  civilization,  like  Jerusalem,  Athens,  Rome  and 
Carthage,  arose  to  pre-eminence  in  sanitary  matters,  built 
sewers,  constructed  aqueducts  and  provided  for  the  inhabi- 
tants magnificent  baths  the  equal  of  which  the  world  has 
never  since  seen.  After  the  splendors  of  Carthage  and 
Rome,  darkness  succeeded;  a  darkness  from  which  we 
slowly  emerged  in  the  sixteenth  century  and  are  now 
speeding  on  to  eclipse  the  sanitary  splendors  of  even  the 
old  Roman  empire. 

In  its  broadest  sense,  a  history  of  sanitation  is  a  story 
of  the  world's  struggle  for  an  adequate  supply  of  whole- 
some water,  and  its  efforts  to  dispose  of  the  resultant 
sewage  without  menace  to  health  nor  offence  to  the  sense 
of  sight  or  smell.      In  ancient  as  in  modern  times,  water 


2  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

was  the  chief  consideration  of  a  community.  Centers  of 
population  sprung  up  in  localities  where  water  was  plen- 
tiful, and  where  for  commercial,  strategetic  or  other 
reasons,  a  city  was  built  remote  from  a  water  course, 
great  expenditures  of  labor  and  treasure  were  made  con- 
structing works  to  conduct  water  to  the  city  from  distant 


Rebekah  at  the  Well 


springs,  lakes  or  water  courses.  Ruins — still  standing — 
of  some  of  those  engineering  works  give  us  some  idea  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  water  supply  for  ancient  cities  belong- 
ing to  the  Roman  empire. 

In  the  early  days  of  primitive  man,  sanitation  was 
among  his  least  concerns.  He  obtained  water  from  the 
most  convenient  source,  and  disposed  of  his  sewage  in  the 
least  laborious  way.  Those  who  lived  in  the  vicinity  of 
streams  solved  the  problem  by  moving  to  the  bank,  where, 
like  their  more  highly  civilized  descendants  of  to-day,  they 
drew  water  from  the  up  side  of  the  stream  and  returned  the 
sewage  to  the  water  to  pollute  and  possibly  contaminate  it 
for  their  neighbors  lower  down. 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  3 

Communities  living  remote  from  natural  water  courses 
soon  learned  the  value  of  wells  as  a  source  of  water  supply. 
Many  mentions  of  wells  are  made  in  the  Book  of  Genesis, 
and  it  is  affirmed  by  Blackstone  that  at  that  period  wells 
were  the  cause  of  violent  and  frequent  contention;  that 
the  exclusive  property  or  title  to  a  well  appeared  to  be 
vested  in  the  first  digger  or  occupant,  even  in  such  places 
where  the  ground  and  herbage  remained  in  common. 

While  this  statement  might  be  true  of  many  instances, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  public  wells  were  dug  even  in 
those  remote  times.  Indeed,  the  first  mention  made  of  a 
well,  in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  would  indicate  that  its 
waters  were  free  to  all.  Abraham's  oldest  servant,  Eliezer, 
had  been  entrusted  with  the  duty  of  selecting  a  wife  for 
Abraham's  son,  Isaac.  The  servant  journeyed  to  the 
ancient  city  of  Nahor,  and  there  "he  made  his  camels 
to  kneel  down  without  the  city  by  a  well  of  water  at  the 
time  of  the  evening  that  women  go  out  to  draw  water." 
And  he  said:  "  Behold,  I  stand  here  by  the  well  of  water; 
and  the  daughters  of  the  men  of  the  city  come  out  to 
draw  water,  and  let  it  come  to  pass  that  the  damsel  to 
whom  I  shall  say.  Let  down  thy  pitcher,  I  pray  thee,  that  I 
may  drink;  and  she  shall  say.  Drink,  and  I  will  give  thy 
camel  drink  also;  Let  the  same  be  she  that  Thou  hast 
appointed  for  thy  servant,  Isaac.  And  it  came  to  pass 
that  Rebekah  came  out,  and  the  damsel  was  very  fair  to 
look  upon,  and  she  went  down  to  the  well  and  filled  her 
pitcher,  and  the  servant  said,  Let  me  I  pray  thee  drink  a 
little  water  of  thy  pitcher.  And  she  said.  Drink,  my  lord, 
and  when  she  had  done  giving  him  drink,  she  said,  I  will 
draw  water  for  thy  camel  also.  And  she  hastened  to 
empty  her  pitcher  in  the  trough  and  ran  again  unto  the 
well  to  draw  water  for  all  the  camels." 

In  Assyria  and  Persia  from  earliest  times,  water  has 
been  conveyed  to  towns  from  astonishing  distances  in 
open  channels,  and  in  Egypt,  also  in  China,  gigantic  works 
for  conveying  water  both  for  domestic  use  and  for  irri- 
gation have  been  in  existence  from  remote  antiquity.  In 
China,  a  knowledge  of  the  art  of  well  drilling  has  existed 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


for  centuries.     Travelers  speak  of  wells  drilled  by  Chinese, 
centuries  ago,  to  a  depth  of  1,500  feet. 

In   the  valley  of   the    Nile    are   many    famous    wells. 
Joseph's  Well*  at  Cairo,  near  the  Pyramids,  is  perhaps  the 

most    famous    of 


-.  ir^ 


ancient  wells.  It  is 
excavated  in  solid 
rock  to  a  depth  of 
297  feet  and  consists 
of  two  stories  or  lifts. 
The  upper  shaft  is  18 
by  24  feet  and  165 
feet  deep;  the  lower 
shaft  is  9  by  15  feet 
and  reaches  to  a 
further  depth  of  132 
feet.  Water  is 
raised  in  two  lifts  by 
means  of  buckets  on 
endless  chains,  those 
for  the  lower  level 
being  operated  by 
mules  in  a  chamber 
at  the  bottom  of  the 
upper  shaft,  to  which 
access  is  had  by 
means  of  a  spiral 
stairway  winding 
about  the  well. 

In  America,  the 
use  of  wells  as  a 
means  of  water 
supply  is  of  great  an- 
tiquity, dating  back 
to  pre-historic  races.  In  the  United  States,  along  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi,  artificially  walled  wells  have  been  found 
that  are  believed  to  have  been  built  by  a  race  of  people  who 

*  Eivbank' s  Hydraulics. 


Well  at  the  Rancho  Chack 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  5 

preceded  the  Indians.  Primitive  tribes  that  lived  in  the 
hills  sometimes  had  their  ingenuity  taxed  to  provide  a 
water  supply.  In  the  hills  or  mountains  of  Yucatan,  at 
Santa  Ana,  in  the  Sierra  de  Yucatan,  there  exists  a  well  of 
great  antiquity  that  shows  the  difficulty  under  which  the 
aborigines  labored  in  their  search  for  water.  The  well  is 
located  on  the  Rancho  Chack.  It  is  not  known  whether 
this  well  was  constructed  by  hand  labor  or  is  one  of  the 
numerous  caverns  in  the  rock,  fashioned  by  the  boundless 
forces  of  nature,  and  with  which  the  hills  abound.  Water 
is  reached  after  descending  by  ladder  a  distance  of  over  loo 
feet  and  traversing  a  passage  2,700  feet  long  or  about  half 
a  mile  in  length.  The  rocky  sides  of  the  tunnel  are  worn 
smooth  by  the  friction  of  clothes  or  bodies  brushing  against 
the  surface,  and  the  roof  of  the  tunnel  is  black  from  soot 
and  smoke  from  countless  torches  that  have  lighted  water 
bearers  to  the  spot  where  a  pool  of  clear,  lukewarm  water 
bars  the  passage.  How  many  centuries  this  little  subter- 
ranean pool  has  supplied  water  to  the  natives  of  this  region 
there  is  no  means  of  ascertaining.  The  well  is  used  at  the 
present  time,  and  perhaps  when  Carthage  was  a  village, 
Rome  a  wilderness,  and  Christianity  unthought  of,  this 
little  pool  of  water  hidden  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  and 
accessible  only  after  traversing  a  dark,  slippery,  perilous 
passage,  was  to  the  Indians  of  that  locality  what  the  old 
oaken  bucket  was  to  the  New  England  villagers  of  the  sev- 
enteenth and  eighteenth  centuries. 


Synopsis  of  Chapter.  Cisterns— Early  Mention  of  Cisterns— Cisterns  of 
Carthage— Early  Methods  of  Raising  Water— Water  Carriers— Pool  of  Siloam— Pool 
of  Solomon— Aqueducts— Carthagenian  Aqueduct— Aqueducts  of  Rome— Aque- 
ducts of  Segovia,  Spain — Trophies  of  Marius. 

THE  storage  of  water  in  cisterns  or  reservoirs  is  by  no 
means  a  modern  practice.    The  earliest  tribes  of  whom 
we  have   any  traditions   or  records  resorted  to  this 
method  for  providing  a  supply  of  water.     In  xi  King:s,  18-31, 


The  Cisterns  at  Carthage.     All  that  is  left  of  the  Ancient  City 


8  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

the  first  mention  is  made  of  cisterns  in  "  Drink  ye  every  one 
the  water  of  his  cistern. "     The  methods  employed  by  the 

ancients  to  construct  cis- 
terns must  have  been  labo- 
rious and  unsatisfactory. 
Cement  at  that  time  was 
unknown  and  bricks  were 
not  made,  so  that  the 
modern  cistern,  as  we 
know  it,  could  not  have 
existed.   No  doubt  in  some 


Pole  and  Bucket  for  Raising  Water 


localities  where  clay  was  plentiful  the  cisterns  were 
scooped  out  of  the  earth  and  puddled  with  clay,  just  as 
many  reservoirs  of  to-day  are  made.  This  method  of  con- 
structing a  cistern,  however,  would  limit  the  form  to  a  cup- 
shaped  affair,  which  would  be  very  difficult  to  roof  over. 
If  the  cisterns  were  not  covered,  as  much  water  might  be 
lost  by  evaporation  as  would  be  used  by  the  inhabitants, 
so  that  at  its  best  a  clay-puddled  cistern  must  have  been 
an  unsatisfactory  affair.  In  the  locality  of  mountains  and 
quarries,  cisterns  were  hewn  out  of  the  solid  rock.  "They 
have  forsaken  me  the  fountain  of  living  waters  and  hewed 
them  out  cisterns,  broken  cisterns  that  can  hold  no  water." 
— Jer.  2-3.  Rock-hewn  cisterns  must  have  made  ideal 
storage  reservoirs  for  water.     The  darkness  of  the  cavern 


Ruins  of  Ancient  Cisterns 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


would  prevent  the  growth  of  vegetation,  while  the  thick 
walls  of  rock,  affording  a  shelter  from  the  sun,  would  keep 
the  water  cool  and  refreshing. 

It  is  worthy  of  noting  here  that  the  ancients  seem  to 
have  been  aware  of  the 
movement  of  ground 
water  through  the  soil, 
a  fact  that  was  forgot- 
ten and  rediscovered  in 
comparatively  recent 
times.  In  Prov.  5-15 
the  statement,  "Drink 
waters  out  of  thine  own 
cistern  and  running 
waters  out  of  thine  own 
well,"  would  lead  to 
this  conclusion,  unless, 
indeed,  they  classed  a 
bubbling    spring    as    a 

■^gl]  Old  Roman  Water  Wheel 

The  earliest  known  cistern  or  reservoir  of  which  we 
have  any  authentic  knowledge  are  the  masonry  cisterns 
or  reservoirs  that  stored  water  for  the  supply  of  the  ancient 
city  of  Carthage.  These  cisterns,  which  are  wonderfully 
well  preserved,  are  still  to  be  seen  on  the  site  of  the  ancient 
Punic  city,  but  outside  of  what  was  the 
walled  city,  before  it  was  totally  destroyed 
by  the  Romans. 

These  cisterns  were  originally 
covered  with  earth,  and  it  is  due  to  that 
fact,  perhaps,  that  they  escaped  destruc- 
tion when  the  Romans  razed  the  city. 
It  is  easy  to  criticise  the  judgment  of 
others,  and  no  doubt  if  all  the  facts  were 
known,  there  were  good  and  sufficient 
reasons  why  the  Roman  general  did  not 
destroy  the  cisterns  and  cut  off  the  supply 
Water  Carrier  with  Jar    of  Water  from  Carthage  during  the  siege 


10  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

of  that  city.  But  in  the  light  of  our  present  knowledge  of 
warfare,  when  a  water  supply  is  considered  a  vulnerable 
point,  most  carefully  guarded  by  the  besieged,  and  the  point 
of  most  furious  attack  by  the  besiegers,  when  the  fall  of  the 
city  is  considered  almost  accomplished  when  its  water  sup- 
ply is  taken,  it  seems  an  oversight  on  the  part  of  the 
Romans  not  to  have  discovered  and  destroyed  the  cisterns, 
particularly  as  the  destruction  of  everything  in  the  city 
and  environs  was  their  mission  at  Carthage.  It  is  an  over- 
sight, however,  for  which  we  may  be  thankful,  since  it 
preserved  for  future  times  an  interesting  engineering  work 
of  great  magnitude  for  that  period. 

The  cisterns  of  Carthage  are  eighteen  in  number,  and 
each  loo  feet  long,  20  feet  wide  and  nearly  20  feet  deep. 
They  lie  in  two  long  parallel  rows  and  empty  into  a  com- 
mon gallery  situated  between  the  rows.  From  this  center 
collecting  gallery  the  water  was  delivered  through  con- 
duits direct  to  the  city  of  Carthage. 

The  earliest  method  of  raising  water  from  a  well, 
cistern  or  other  source  of  supply  was  by  hand.  This 
method,  however,  was  laborious  and  unsatisfactory,  par- 
ticularly when  necessary  to  raise  large  quantities  of  water 
for  irrigation  purposes,  or  to  supply  the  inhabitants  of  a 
community  at  a  great  distance  or  high  elevation,  and  it 
was  not  long  before  the  mechanical  ingenuity  of  our  ances- 
tors devised  means  for  transferring  this  arduous  duty  to 
oxen,  asses  or  other  beasts  of  burden.  Sometimes,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Romans,  this  work  is  made  a  penal  punish- 
ment, and  persons  found  guilty  of  certain  offenses  were 
sentenced  to  the  water-wheel. 

About  the  earliest  known  device  for  raising  small 
quantities  of  water  was  the  pole  and  bucket,  which  was 
commonly  employed  in  Italy,  Greece  and  Egypt.  The 
great  antiquity  of  this  method  of  raising  water  is  proved  by 
representations  of  it  in  Egyptian  paintings.  It  consisted  of 
a  bucket  attached  to  a  pole  that  was  suspended  by  trunnions 
so  located  that  when  the  bucket  was  filled  with  water  the 
thick  end  of  the  pole  would  just  balance  the  combined 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  11 

weight  of  bucket  and  water.  This  permitted  its  use  for 
many  hours  at  a  time,  when  raising  water  for  irrigation 
without  greatly  fatiguing  the  operator. 

The  most  ingenious  and  highly  involved  form  of 
ancient  water-raising  machine 
was  a  water-wheel.  The  method 
of  operating  a  water-wheel  de- 
pended much  on  the  region  where 
used.  In  Egypt,  along  the  Nile, 
oxen  were  employed  for  this  pur- 
pose. In  China,  coolies  were 
found  more  satisfactory  even  in 
raising  large  quantities  of  water 
for  irrigation  purposes,  which 
they  did  by  walking  a  simple 
form  of  treadmill   on   the   outer 

,      -  ,  1         .  ,^-,         Water  Carrier  with  Goat-skin  Bag 

edges  of  the  water-wheel.       ihe 

Romans,  slow  at  originating,  but,  like  the  Japanese,  quick 
to  recognize  the  value  of  anything  new  and  adapt  it  to 
their  purposes,  borrowed  the  idea  of  the  water-wheel  from 
the  Greeks  or  Egyptians,  but  made  it  automatic  when  used 
in  streams  and  rivers  by  adding  paddles  that  dipped  into 
the  running  water  and  were  moved  by  the  current  of  the 
stream.  Water-wheels  operated  by  oxen  were  in  use  at  Cairo 
up  to  the  twelfth  century,  where  they  raised  water  verti- 
cally a  distance  of  80  feet  from  the  Nile  to  an  aqueduct 
that  supplied  the  citadel  of  Cairo. 

Our  present  elaborate  system  of  water  distribution  was 
of  humble  origin.  It  was  not  a  rapid  growth,  but  a  gradual 
evolution.  Its  four  principal  stages  were:  First,  distribu- 
tion from  natural  sources  by  water  carriers ;  second,  aque- 
ducts conveying  water  to  communities  where  a  system  of 
sub-conduits  or  aqueducts  conveyed  the  water  from  the 
main  aqueduct  to  reservoirs  at  different  points  in  a  city; 
third,  a  system  of  distributing  mains  through  which  water 
was  furnished  to  householders  at  certain  hours  only  during 
the  day;  and  fourth,  our  present  system  of  continuous  sup- 
ply at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night.      In  the  first  stages 


1/ 


13 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


of  water  distribution,  water  was  carried  on  the  backs  of 
water  carriers  in  earthenware  jars  constructed  especially 
for  the  purpose,  or  in  goat  or  other  animal  skins  properly- 
tanned  and  sewed  to  hold  water.  While  this  method  of 
water  distribution  is  of  great  antiquity,  it  is  still  practiced 
in  most  tropical  countries,  and  to  this  day  water  carriers, 
some  with  the  burdens  on  their  backs,  others  with  g-oatskins 
of  water  on  donkeys'  backs  or  with  jars  of  water  in  two- 
wheeled  carts,  may  be  seen  plying  their  trade  in  Mexican 
and  Egyptian  cities. 

The  earliest  record  we  have  of  any  effort  to  supply  a 
community  with  water  conveyed  in  tunnels  or  aqueducts 
from  a  great  distance,  dates  from  the  year  727  b.  c.  King 
Hezekiah  or  Ezekias,  who  reigned  in  Jerusalem  at  that 
time,  was  much  troubled  over  the  poor  quality  of  water 
furnished  to  the  city  and  undertook  to  provide  a  better 
supply. 


Pool  of  Siloam 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


13 


Pool  of  Solomon 


He  had  built  at  the  gates  of  the  city  a  vast  reservoir, 
the  "Pool  of  Siloam,"  but  when  it  was  completed,  found 
that  a  sufficient  quantity  of  water  could  not  be  had  without 
conveying  it  from  a  distant  source  on  the  easterly  side  of 
a  range  of  hills  of  solid  rock,  over  which  it  would  be 
impossible  to  convey  it.  In  no  way  daunted  he  set  to 
work  to  pierce  the  hills  with  a  tunnel  or  aqueduct,  capable 
of  supplying  the  city  with  water.  Work  was  commenced 
simultaneously  at  both  ends  of  the  tunnel  and  progressed 
uninterruptedly  until  the  workmen  met  in  the  center 
under  the  mountain  or  hill.  An  inscription  in  old  Hebrew 
characters,  found  close  to  Jerusalem  and  preserved  in  the 
Constantinople  Museum,  throws  some  interesting  light  on 
this,  for  that  period,  remarkable  engineering  work.  Trans- 
lated, the  inscription  reads:  "The  piercing  is  terminated. 
When  the  pick  of  one  had  not  yet  struck  against  the  pick 
of  the  other,  and  while  there  was  yet  a  distance  of  3  ells,  it 


14  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

was  possible  to  hear  the  voice  of  one  man  calling  to  another 
across  the  rock  separating  them,  and  the  last  day  of  the 
piercing,  the  miner's  pick  met  against  pick.  The  height  of 
rock  above  the  heads  of  the  miners  was  loo  ells.      Then 


Aqueduct  neur  Tunis,  leading  to  Ancient  Carthage 

the  water  flowed  into  the  reservoir  over  a  length  of  1,200 
ells."  This  tunnel  was  cut  through  a  mountain  of  solid 
rock.  The  tunnel  varied  in  dimensions  from  ^'s  of  a  yard 
to  a  yard  in  width,  and  from  i  to  3  yards  in  height,  accord- 
ing to  the  hardness  of  the  rock. 

The  magnitude  of  this  undertaking  can  be  realized 
only  when  it  is  considered  that  the  tunnel  was  constructed 
without  the  aid  of  blasting  agents,  machine  drills,  steam, 
electricity  or  any  of  the  great  forces  or  devices  now  con- 
trolled by  man  and  used  in  modern  engineering  construc- 
tion. 

At  a  later  period  in  the  world's  history,  Roman  engi- 
neers, tunneling  through  the  rock,  used  fire  as  well  as 
chisels  to  disintegrate  the  rock.  The  usual  method  of  pro- 
cedure was  to  build  an  intensely  hot  fire  against  the  rock, 
and  when  the  rock  had  been  heated  to  the  right  tempera- 
ture it  was  drenched  with  cold  water  to  crack  and  disinte- 
grate it.  According  to  Pliny,  vinegar  was  sometimes  used 
instead  of  water,  under  the  impression  that  it  was  more 
effective  in  disintegrating  rock. 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


15 


It  is  doubtful  if  this  method  was  used  in  constructing 
the  tunnel  at  Jerusalem.  In  fact  it  can  be  stated  with 
considerable  assurance  that  the  entire  tunnel  was  cut  by- 
drilling  and  chiseling,  as  the  tool  marks  are  plainly  dis- 
cernible. It  further  is  evident  that,  as  stated  in  the  tablet 
found  near  Jerusalem,  the  tunnel  was  worked  from  both 
ends  until  the  miners  met  in  the  center.  This  is  evidenced 
by  the  direction  of  the  tool  marks,  which  plainly  show  that 
the  cutting  on  each  side  of  the  center  was  done  in  different 
directions. 

Prior  to  the  construction  of  the  tunnel,  the  ancient 
city  of  Jerusalem  was  supplied  with  water  through  two 
aqueducts,  one  of  which  supplied  water  from  the  famous 
pools  of  Solomon,  to  the  south  of  the  city,  and  the  other 
poured  its  contents  into  the  pools  of  Hezekiah,  outside  the 
walls  of  the  city. 

The  Greeks  were  the  next  in  point  of  time  to  construct 
tunnels  in  connection 
with  the  building  of 
aqueducts.  In  625  B. 
C.  the  Greek  engineer 
Eupalinus  construc- 
ted a  tunnel  8  feet 
broad  by  8  feet  high 
and  4,200  feet  long, 
through  which  was 
built  a  channel  to  sup- 
ply the  city  of  Athens 
with  water. 

This  period 
marks  the  beginning 
in  Greece  and  Rome 
of  a  school  of  archi- 
tects and  engineers 
whose  works  have  left 
a  lasting  impression 
on  art  and  engineer- 
ing science,  and  to  this 


Ancient  Roman  Well 


16  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

day  are  monuments  of  proportion  and  beauty  of  design  that 
are  studied  by  all  students  of  architecture  and  engineering. 
It  is  quite  probable  that  Greece  supplied  the  first  engineers 
that  constructed  aqueducts  in  Carthage  and  Rome.  The 
similarity  in  design  of  these  various  works  points  forcibly 
to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  all  designed  by  disciples  of 
one  school. 

Whether  the  first  aqueducts  were  built  in  Carthage  or 
in  Rome  is  a  matter  of  some  uncertainty,  although  the 
fact  that  an  aqueduct  supplied  Carthage  with  water  at  the 
time  it  was  destroyed  by  the  Romans  would  point  to  the 
Carthagenian  aqueduct  as  the  prior.  The  first  Roman 
aqueduct  was  built  in  the  year  312  b.  c,  and  the  city  of 
Carthage,  which,  after  a  protracted  struggle  of  118  years, 
from  265  B.  c.  to  147  B.  c,  was  finally  conquered  and 
destroyed  by  the  Romans,  was  at  that  time  supplied  with 
water  from  distant  springs  through  an  aqueduct. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  Carthage  was  supplied  with 
water  from  two  different  sources.  The  cisterns  already 
mentioned  provided  a  supply  of  rain  water  for  industrial 
and  most  domestic  uses,  while  the  aqueduct,  the  channel 
of  which  had  a  cross-section  of  10  inches  square,  brought 
drinking  water  from  springs  in  the  Zaghorn  Mountains, 
some  60  kilometers  distant.  The  aqueduct  contoured  the 
hillside  for  a  considerable  distance,  at  times  went  under 
ground,  and  on  approaching  the  city  was  carried  on 
arches  of  magnitude  seemingly  out  of  proportion  to  the 
size  of  the  channel.  At  present  it  is  suffering  the  fate  of 
most  ancient  ruins.  It  is  used  as  a  quarry  from  which 
stones  are  taken  to  construct  buildings  in  nearby  towns 
and  villages. 

While  the  ruins  of  aqueducts  and  tunnels  at  Jerusalem, 
Athens  and  Carthage  give  some  idea  of  the  skill  and 
knowledge  of  hydraulic  and  sanitary  matters  possessed  by 
the  engineers  of  that  period,  we  must  turn  to  Rome  and 
s-tudy  their  system  of  water  supply,  drains  for  sewage  and 
the  ruins  of  their  magnificent  baths  to  form  a  true  concep- 
tion of  the  skill  of  the  early  school  of  Roman  engineers 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


17 


and  the  lavish  expenditures  of  treasure  by  the  inhabitants 
to  secure  an  adequate  water  supply  for  Rome.  No  aque- 
ducts were  built  in  Rome  before  the  year  312  b.  c.  Prior 
to  that  time  the  inhabitants  supplied  themselves  with 
water  from  the  Tiber  or  from  wells,  cisterns  or  springs. 
The  first  aqueduct  was  begun  by  Appius  Claudius,  the 
censor,  and  was  named  after  him  the  Aqua  Appia.  This 
aqueduct  had  an  extreme  length  of  11  miles,  and  almost 
all  of  the  work  was  entirely  under  ground.  Remains  of 
this  work  no  longer  exist.  After  the  Aqua  Appia  was 
completed  the  building  of  aqueducts  seems  to  have  become 
almost  a  habit  of  the  Romans,  and  it  was  not  long — 272 
B.  c. — before  M.  Aurius  Dentatus  began  a  second  one 
called  the  Anio  Vetus,  which  brought  water  from  the  river 
Anio,  a  distance  of  43  miles.  This  aqueduct  was  con- 
structed of  stone  and  the  water  channel  was  lined  with 
a  thick  coat  of  cement — no  doubt  Pozzolana  cement — 
made  from  rock  of  volcanic  origin,  which,  upon  being 
pulverized  and  mixed  with  lime,  possessed  the  hydraulic 
property  of  setting  under  water.  Indeed,  there  can  be  but 
little  doubt  that  were  it  not  for  this  natural  cement  the 
construction  of  Roman  aqueducts  would  have  been  more 
difficult  to  accomplish. 

The  water  furnished  by  the  Anio  Vetus  was  of  such 
poor  quality  that  it  was  almost  unfit  for  drinking.  A  further 
supply  being  found  indispensable,  the  Senate  commissioned 


^ytif^^ 


5?'' 


-^  --'-A 


'%: 


Ruins  of  a  Roman  Aqueduct 


18 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


Quintus  Marcius  Rex,  the  man  who  had  superintended 
the  repairs  of  the  two  already  built,  to  undertake  a  third, 
which  was  called  after  him  the  Aqua  Marcia.  This  was 
the  most  pretentious  aqueduct  undertaken.  It  was  6i 
miles  long,  about  7  of  which  were  above  ground,  carried 
on  arches,  and  of  such  height  that  water  could  be  delivered 
to  the  loftiest  part  of  Capitoline  Mount.  A  considerable 
number  of  the  arches  of  this  aqueduct  are  still  standing. 
Remains  are  also  standing  of  the  Aqueduct  Tepula  (127 
B.  c.)  and  the  Aqua  Julia  (35  b.  c),  which,  if  we  except 
the  Herculea  branch,  are  next  in  point  of  date.  Near  the 
city  of  Rome  the  three  aqueducts  were  united  in  one  line 
of  structure,   forming  three   separate  water  courses,   one 


Hi 


Distant  View  of  the  Claudia  Aqueduct 


above  another,  the  lowermost  of  which  formed  the  chan- 
nel of  the  Aqua  Marcia  and  the  uppermost  that  of  the 
Aqua  Julia. 

Thirteen  years  after  the  Julia,  the  Virgo  aqueduct  was 
built.  This  aqueduct  was  14  miles  long  and  is  said  to  be 
so  named  because  the  spring  from  which  it  is  supplied  was 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


19 


first  pointed  out  by  a  girl  to  some  soldiers  who  were  in 
search  of  water.  This  aqueduct  still  exists  entire,  having 
been  partly  restored  by  Nicholas  V  and  the  work  com- 
pleted by  Pope  Pius  IV  in  1568. 


Near  View  of  the  Claudia  Aqueduct 

In  the  tenth  year  of  the  Christian  era,  the  Augusta 
aqueduct  was  built.  This  aqueduct  was  only  6  miles  long, 
and  the  water  that  it  brought  from  Lake  Aluetimus  was 
of  such  bad  quality  as  to  be  scarcely  fit  for  drinking,  on 
which  account  it  is  supposed  that  the  founder,  Augustus, 
intended  it  chiefly  for  his  naumachia.       y 

It  might  be  interesting  at  this  point  to  deviate  a  little 
from  the  history  of  the  Roman  aqueducts  and  draw  aside 
the  curtain  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  aquatic  sports  or 
pastimes  of  a  Roman  emperor  of  that  period.  The  nauma- 
chia of  Augustus  was  a  rectangular  basin  1,800  feet  long  by 
1,200  feet  wide,  in  which  actual  sea  fights  between  rival 
fleets  were  held  for  the  amusement  of  the  emperor  and 
his  friends.  The  combatants  in  these  sea  fights  were  usu- 
ally captives,  or  criminals  condemned  to  death,  who  fought 
as  in  gladiatorial  combats,  until  one  party  was  killed, 
unless  saved  by  the  clemency  of  the  emperor.  The  vessels 
engaged   in   the   sea   fight  were   divided  into  two  parties, 


20 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


called  respectively  by  names  of  different  maritime  nations, 
as  Persians  and  Athenians.  The  sea  fights  were  conducted 
on  the  same  magnificent  scale  and  with  the  same  disregard 
of  life  as  characterized  the  gladiatorial  combats  and  other 
public  games  of  the  Romans  held  in  the  Colosseum.  In 
Nero's  natimachia,  sea  monsters  were  swimming  around  in 
the  artificial  lake  to  make  short  work  of  any  poor  unfor- 
tunate that  was  unlucky  enough  to  go  overboard. 

In  some  of  the  sea  fights  exhibited  by  different  emper- 
ors, the  ships  were  almost  equal  in  number  to  real  fleets. 
In  one  battle  there  were  19,000  combatants  and  50  ships  on 
each  side. 

It  was  for  the  purpose  then  of  supplying  one  of  these 
artificial  lakes  with  water  that  the  Augusta  aqueduct  was 
constructed. 

Perhaps  the  best  known  aqueducts  of  Rome  are  the 
Claudia  and  the  Anio  Novus.  The  completion  of  these 
waterways,  which  was  accomplished  respectively  in  50 
and  52  A.  D.,  doubled  the  supply  of  w^ater  to  Rome.  The 
Claudia  aqueduct  was  46  miles  in  length  and  the  Anio 
Novus  58  miles  in  length.     The  Claudia  was  commenced 


Aqueduct  in  Ruins,  Ephesus 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  21 

by  Caligula  in  the  year  38,  but  was  completed,  as  was  the 
Anio  Novus,  by  the  Emperor  Claudius. 

Many  other  aqueducts  besides  those  mentioned  were 
built  at  different  periods  to  add  to  the  water  supply  of 
Rome.  A  table  is  given  below  showing  the  date  of  the 
constructions  and  their  lengths. 

The  magnificence  displayed  by  the  Romans  in  the 
construction  of  aqueducts  was  not  confined  to  the  capital. 
Wherever  Roman  colonies  were  established,  it  would 
appear  that  vast  sums  were  expended  in  providing  the 
community  with  a  suitable  supply  of  water.  Ruins  of 
aqueducts  built  by  the  Romans  may  still  be  seen  at  many 
points  in  Spain,  France,  Africa,  Greece,  and  even  England 
can  point  to  the  ruins  of  a  water  tower  built  by  this  prolific 
school  of  Roman  engineers.  At  the  present  time  there  are 
probably  one  hundred  or  more  structures  of  this  kind  in 
existence,  some  of  which  are  in  daily  use,  supplying  water 
to  inhabitants  of  communities  for  whose  ancestors  they 
were  built  centuries  ago. 

ROMAN  AQUEDUCTS,  ARRANGED  IN  CHRONOLOGICAL  ORDER 

Name  of                                                                               Date  of  Length 

Aqueduct                                                                        Construction  Miles 

Appia 313  B.  C.  11 

Anio  Vetus         273  B.  C.  43 

Marcia 145  B.  C.  61 

Herculea  branch         .....  3 

Tepula 127  B.  C.  13 

Julia            35  B.  C.  15 

Virgo 21  B.  C.  14 

Augusta      .  •       .         .         .         .         .         .         10  A.  D.  6 

Absietina 10  A.  D.  22 

Claudia 50  A.  D.  46 

Anio  Novus 52  A.  D.  58 

Neronian  branch 97  A.  D.  2 

Trajana Ill  A.  D.  42 

Hadriana 117-1585  A.  D.  15 

Aurelia 162  A.  D.  16 

Severiana 200  A.  D.  10 

Antoniniana  branch 212  A.  D.  8 

Sabina-Augusta         ....         130-300  A.  D.  15 

Alexandrina 230  A.  D.  15 

Jova 300  A.  D. 

(The  miles  above  given  are  Roman  miles,  of  4,854  feet.  The 
entire  length  of  aqueduct  in  English  miles  would  be  398.) 


33 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


Aqueduct  of  Segovia,  Spain 

The  aqueduct  of  Segovia,  Spain,  is  one  of  the  most 
perfect  and  magnificent  works  of  the  kind  remaining.  It 
is  built  without  mortar,  is  entirely  of  stone  and  of  great 
solidity.  The  piers  are  8  feet  wide  by  ii  feet  deep,  and 
where  the  aqueduct  approaches  the  city  it  attains  a  height 
of  about  loo  feet.  This  aqueduct  is  over  2,400  feet  long, 
is  built  in  two  tiers  of  arches  and  although  almost 
eighteen  hundred  years  old,  still  supplies  water  to  the  city. 
Of  the  109  arches,  however,  30  are  of  modern  construction, 
being  reproductions  of  the  ancient  arches. 

The  constructive  details  of  these  old  water  courses 
are  as  interesting  as  are  their  general  design.  At 
the  mouth  of  each  aqueduct  there  generally  was  con- 
structed a  reservoir  in  which  to  collect  water  from 
the  springs  or  streams  that  supplied  it,  and  in  which 
impurities  could  settle  before  the  clarified  water  was  deliv- 
ered into  the  channel.  The  water  channel  was  usually 
formed  either  of  stone  or  brick  coated  on  the  inside  with 
cement  to  make  it  water-tight.  It  was  arched  over  on  top, 
and  at  certain  intervals  vent  holes  were  provided  through 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


33 


which  access  could  be  had  to  the  channel  to  make  repairs. 
When  two  or  more  channels  were  carried  one  above 
another,  the  vent  holes  of  the  lower  ones  were  placed  in 
the  sides.  When  possible,  aqueducts  were  carried  in  a 
direct  line,  but  frequently  they  were  given  a  tortuous 
course  either  to  avoid  boring  through  hills,  where  their 
construction  would  have  entailed  too  great  expense,  or  else 
to  avoid  very  deep  valleys  or  soft  marshy  ground.  In 
every  aqueduct,  besides  the  principal  reservoirs  at  its 
mouth  and  terminal,  there  were  intermediate  ones  at 
certain  distances  along  its  course,  in  which  any  remaining 
sediment  might  be  deposited.  In  addition  to  serving  as 
sediment  basins,  these  reservoirs  made  it  more  easy  to 
superintend  and  keep  in  repair  the  different  sections,  and 
provided  service  reservoirs  to  furnish  irrigation  water 
for  fields  and  gardens  and  water  for  stock.  The  prin- 
cipal reservoir  was  that  in  which  the  aqueduct  ter- 
minated. This  reservoir  or  castella,  as  it  was  called, 
far  exceeded  any  of  the  others  in  grandeur  of  arch- 
itecture,   or   in    magnitude    and    solidity    of    construction. 


Water  Tower  and  Roman  Ruins,  Chester,  England 


24 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


Roman  Water  Pipes  made  of  Bored-out  Blocks 
of  Stone 


The  ruins  of  a  work  of  this  kind  that  still  exist  on  the 
Esquiline  Hill  at  Rome,  are  about  200  feet  long  by  130 
feet  wide,  and  had  a  vaulted  roof  that  rested  on  48  im- 
mense pillars  disposed  to  form  rows  so  as  to  form  5  aisles 

and  75  arches.  From 
the  description  of  this 
interesting  reservoir, 
the  interior  must  have 
greatly  resembled 
many  of  the  covered 
slow-sand  fillers  re- 
cently constructed  in 
this  country,  in  which 
elliptical  groined 
arches  form  the  roof, 
which  is  carried  on 
brick  columns  spaced  as  in  the  reservoirs  at  Rome, 
about  15  feet  from  center  to  center.  Judging  from 
the  fact  that  not  only  the  aqueducts  but  also  the  reser- 
voirs were  covered  to  exclude  light,  it  seems  reasona- 
ble to  conclude  that  Roman  engineers  were  aware  that 
absence  of  light  prevented  or  altogether  checked  the  growth 
of  algae  and  other  objectionable  forms  of  water  vegetation. 
Nowhere  in  the  writings  of  the  early  historians  is  any  men- 
tion made  of  trouble  due  to  this  cause,  but  as  the  water 
supply  of  Rome  was  obtained  from  both  ground  (spring)  and 
surface  sources,  which  in  many  cases  were  mixed  together, 
the  resultant  mixture  would  have  furnished  the  best  possible 
soil  for  algae,  the  ground  water  providing  the  necessary 
mineral  food  and  the  surface  water  furnishing  the  seed. 
It  is  quite  probable,  therefore,  that  the  aqueducts  and 
reservoirs  were  covered  to  prevent  such  growths. 

Besides  the  principal  reservoir,  each  aqueduct  had 
a  number  of  smaller  ones  at  different  points  in  the  sections 
they  supplied,  to  provide  that  neighborhood  with  water. 
It  is  estimated  that  all  told  there  were  247  of  the  auxiliary 
public  reservoirs  scattered  throughout  the  city.  These 
reservoirs   were    supplied    from    the    principal    reservoir 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


25 


through  pipes  of  lead,  burned  earthenware,  and  in  some 
cases  bored  out  blocks  of  stone.  Burned  earthenware 
pipes  were  generally  used  not  only  on  account  of  their 
greater  cheapness,  but  because  the  Romans  were  aware  of 
the  injurious  effect  of  lead  poisoning,  and  looked  with 
suspicion  on  water  that  had  been  conducted  through  lead 
pipes. 

When  a  number  of  individuals  living  in  the  same 
neighborhood  had  obtained  a  grant  of  water,  they  clubbed 
together  and  built  a  private  reservoir  into  which  the  whole 
quantity  allotted  to  them  collectively  was  transmitted  from 
the  public  reservoir.  The  object  of  private  reservoirs  was 
to  facilitate  the  distribution  of  the  proper  amount  of  water 
to  each  person  and  to  avoid  puncturing  the  main  aqueduct 
in  too  many  places.  When  a  supply  of  water  from  the 
aqueduct  was  first  granted  for  private  use,  each  house- 
holder granted  the  privilege  obtained  his  quantity  by  tap- 
ping a  branch  supply  pipe  into  the  main  aqueduct,  and 
conducting  the  branch  to  a  domestic  reservoir  within  his 
own  house.  Later 
when  the  system 
of  private  reser- 
voirs was  adopted, 
each  domestic  sup- 
ply of  water  was 
obtained  from  the 
private  reservoir 
and  piped  to  the 
domestic  reservoir 
which  was  made 
of  lead. 

The  facade  of 
an  aqueduct  reser- 
voir known  as  the  Trophies  of  Marius 

"Trophies  of  Marius"  may  be  seen  in  the  accompanying 
reproduction  of  a  woodcut  made  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
The  ground  plan  shows  part  of  the  internal  construction. 
The  stream  of  water  is  first  divided  by  the  round  projecting 


36 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


Old  Roman  Lead  and  Terra-cotta  Pipe 


buttress  into  two  courses  which  are  again  sub-divided 
into  five  minor  streams  that  discharge  into  the  reservoir 
as  indicated  in  the  cut. 

The   quantity  of  water  supplied    to    Rome    compared 

favorably  with  the  per 
capita  allowance  of 
water  provided  at  the 
present  time  for  the 
principal  cities  of  the 
United  States,  and 
was  far  in  excess  of 
the  water  supplied  at 
the  present  time  to 
British  and  European 
cities.  According  to 
Clemens  Herschel, 
however,  Rome,  with 
a  population  of  1,000,000  people,  had  a  daily  water  supply 
of  only  32,000,000  U.  S.  gallons.  In  estimating  the  quan- 
tity of  water  brought  to  the  city  by  the  system  of  aqueducts, 
Mr.  Herschel  makes  due  allowance  for  and  deducts  what  he 
thinks  might  be  lost  by  leakage,  theft,  water  supplied  to 
artificial  lakes  for  sea  fights,  and  also  assumes  that  a  certain 
percentage  of  the  channels  at  all  times  were  cut  out  of 
service  for  repairs.  He  makes  no  allowance,  however, 
for  water  obtained  from  different  sources,  such  as  wells, 
springs  and  the  Tiber  River,  from  which,  no  doubt,  many  of 
the  inhabitants  obtained  their  entire  supply  of  water. 
Indeed,  in  the  year  35  b.  c,  M.  Agrippa,  as  the  head  of  the 
water  supply  system  of  Rome,  in  addition  to  repairing  the 
Aqua  Julia  and  Marcia  aqueduct,  supplied  the  city  with 
700  wells  and  150  springs. 

There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  conditions  in  Rome 
were  different  from  those  existing  to-day  in  our  large  cities, 
and  it  is  more  than  probable  that  the  poor  people  of  Rome 
were  but  scantily  supplied  with  water  from  the  aqueducts. 
The  supply  obtained  by  them  from  ground  sources  should 
therefore  be  added  to  that  supplied  by  the  aqueducts,  and 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


27 


it  would  then  be  found,  as  most  writers  assert,  that  the 
per  capita  daily  supply  of  water  to  Rome  was  equal  to 
about  loo  U.   S.   gallons. 

Such  enormous  quantities  of  water  could  not  be  poured 
daily  into  a  limited  area  without  material  and  physical 
injury  resulting  if  provision  were  not  made  to  dispose  of 
the  surplus.  Hence  it  was  that  a  system  of  drains  was 
evolved  in  Rome,  which,  while  not  the  first  in  point  of 
time,  nevertheless  were  the  only  ones  known  to  have  been 
constructed  by  the  ancients,  until  within  a  comparatively 
recent  date  ruins  of  sewerage  systems  were  unearthed  in 
Bismya,   an  ancient  Symerian  or  pre-Babylonian  city. 


Synopsis  of  Chapter.  Early  Sewage  Disposal— Removal  of  Offensive  Ma- 
terials from  Temples  of  Jerusalem— Sewage  Sj^stem  of  a  Pre-Babylonian  City — 
Sewers  of  Rome — The  Cloaca  Maxima — The  Dejecti  Effusive  Act. 

BEFORE  describing  the  sewerage  system  of  Rome, 
it  might  be  interesting  to  glance  backward  at  the 
efforts  made  prior  to  that  time  to  dispose  of  excreta 
and  household  wastes. 

It  is  in  Deuteronomy,  one  of  the  Books  of  Moses, 
that  first  mention  is  made  of  the  disposal  of  excreta :  ' '  Thou 
shalt  have  a  place  also  without  the  camp,  whither  thou 
shalt  go  forth  abroad. 

"And  thou  shalt  have  a  paddle  upon  thy  weapon; 
and  it  shall  be  when  thou  wilt  ease  thyself  abroad,  thou 
shalt  dig  therewith,  and  shall  turn  back  and  cover  that 
which  Cometh  from  thee." 

No  doubt  the  object  of  Moses  in  promulgating  that  law 
was  to  preserve  cleanliness  about  camp  and  to  hide  offen- 
sive matter  from  sight  in  the  least  odorous  way.  Neverthe- 
less no  more  sanitary  method  could  have  been  adopted. 
Deposited  as  the  soil  was,  in  small  quantities,  just  under- 
neath the  surface  of  the  ground  it  was  soon  reduced  to 
harmless  compounds  by  the  teeming  bacteria  in  the  living 
earth. 

Recent  explorations  in  Jerusalem  have  brought  to 
light  extensive  drains  for  the  removal  from  the  vicinity  of 
the  temples  of  offensive  matters  peculiar  to  the  bloody  sac- 
rifices of  that  ancient  people  ;  and  in  an  August,  1905, 
issue  of  the  Scientific  American^  Edgar  James  Banks,  field 


29 


30  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

director  of  the  Babylonian  expedition  of  the  University 
of  Chicago,  gives  an  interesting  description  of  house  drains 
and  sewage  disposal  wells  constructed  at  Bismya  some  4,500 
years  ago.  The  following  account  is  abstracted  from  that 
article : 

"Babylonia  is  perfectly  level.  From  Bagdad  to  the 
Persian  Gulf  there  is  not  the  slightest  elevation  save  for 
the  artificial  mounds  or  an  occasional  changing  sand  drift. 
In  most  places  there  is  a  crust  of  hard  clay  upon  the  sur- 
face, baked  by  the  hot  sun  of  summer  time  so  hard  that  it 
resembles  stone.  Beneath  the  crust,  which  at  Bismya  is 
seldom  more  than  4  feet  in  thickness  and  in  places  entirely 
lacking,  is  loose  caving  sand  reaching  to  an  unknown 
depth. 

"  Drainage  in  such  a  country,  without  sloping  hills  or 
streams  of  running  water,  might  tax  the  ingenuity  of  the 
modern  builder.  In  constructing  a  house,  the  ancient 
Sumerian  of  more  than  6,000  years  ago  first  dug  a  hole 
into  the  sand  to  a  considerable  depth.  At  Bismya  several 
instances  were  found  where  the  shaft  had  reached  the 
depth  of  45  feet  beneath  the  foundation  of  the  house. 
From  the  bottom  he  built  up  a  vertical  drain  of  large 
cylindrical  terra  cotta  sections,  each  of  which  is  provided 
with  grooved  flanges  to  receive  the  one  above.  The  sec- 
tions of  one  drain  were  about  19  inches  in  diameter  and 
23^  inches  in  height;  others  were  larger  and  much 
shorter.  The  thickness  of  the  wall  was  about  1.06  inches. 
The  tiles  were  punctured  at  intervals  with  small  holes  of 
about  %  inch  in  diameter.  The  section  at  the  top  of  the 
drain  was  semi-spherical,  fitting  over  it  like  a  cap  and  pro- 
vided with  an  opening  to  receive  the  water  from  above. 
Sand  and  potsherds  were  then  filled  in  about  the  drain 
and  it  was  ready  for  use.  The  water  pouring  into  it  was 
rapidly  absorbed  by  the  sand  at  the  bottom,  and  if  there  it 
became  clogged  the  water  escaped  through  the  holes  in  the 
sides  of  the  tiles. 

The  temple  at  Bismya  was  provided  with  several  such 
drains.     One  palace   was  discovered  with    four.     A    large 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  31 

bath  resembling  a  modern  Turkish  bath  and  provided  with 
bitumen  floor,  sloping  to  one  corner,  emptied  its  waste 
water  into  one.  The  toilets  in  the  private  houses  of  6,000 
years  ago  were  almost  identical  with  those  of  the  modern 
Arab  house — a  small  oblong  hole  in  the  floor,  without  a 
seat.  Several  found  in  Bismya  were  provided  with  vertical 
drains  beneath, 

"In  clearing  out  the  drains  a  few  of  them  whose  open- 
ings had  been  exposed  were  filled  with  the  drifting  sand. 
Others  were  half  full  of  the  filth  of  long  past  ages.  In 
one  at  the  temple  we  removed  dozens  of  shallow  terra  cotta 
drinking  cups  not  unlike  a  large  saucer  in  shape  and  size. 
Evidently  it  received  the  waste  water  of  the  drinking  foun- 
tain and  the  cups  had  accidentally  dropped  within. 

"In  the  Bismya  temple  platform,  constructed  about  2750 
B.  c,  we  discovered  a  horizontal  drain  of  tile,  each  of 
which  was  about  3  feet  long  and  6  inches  in  diameter 
and  not  unlike  in  shape  those  at  present  employed.  It 
conducted  the  rain  water  from  the  platform  to  one  of 
the  vertical  drains.  One  tile  was  so  well  constructed  that 
for  a  long  time  it  served  as  a  chimney  for  our  house,  until 
my  Turkish  overseer  suggested  that  its  dark,  smoked  end 
project  from  the  battlements  of  the  house  to  convince  the 
Arabs  that  we  were  well  fortified ;  thus  it  served  as  a  gun 
until  the  close  of  the  excavations." 

The  first  sewers  of  Rome  were  built  between  800  and 
735  B.  c,  and  therefore  antedate  the  first  aqueduct  by  be- 
tween 440  and  487  years.      It    is    evident,   therefore,   that 
asoriginally_ 
planned  the  sew- 
ers of  Rome  were 
intended  to  carry 
off     the     surface 
water  and  in  other 
ways     serve     to 
drain  the   site  of 
the  ancient   city. 

inUeeQ,         tne  ^j^I-ig  cioaca  Maxima.     From  an  old  woodcut 


32 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


The  Cloaca  Maxima.     From   a  Recent  Photograph 


Cloaca  Maxima,  which  was  constructed  during  the  period 
of  the  Kings,  from  735  to  5 10  b.  c. ,  was  intended  to  drain  the 
marshy  hollow  between  the  Capitoline,  Palatine  and  Esqui- 
line  hills,  and  afterwards,  by  a  process  of  development,  be- 
came part  of  a  combined  sewage  system  for  the  city. 

That  the  engineers  who  designed  the  sewerage  system 
of  Rome  had  a  clear  conception  of  the  service  expected  of 
such  drains,  is  evidenced  by  the  manner  in  which  the  system 
was  proportioned.  The  pipes  gradually  enlarged  from 
their  extremities  in  the  buildings  through  all  the  ramifica- 
tions of  the  system  until  they  finally  reached  the  outlet  at 
a  bulkhead  or  quay-wall  in  the  Tiber.  It  is  stated  by  early 
writers  that  so  complete  was  this  system  of  sewers  that  every 
street  in  the  ancient  city  was  drained  by  a  branch  into  the 
Tiber. 

The  Cloaca  Maxima  was  one  of  the  largest  and  most 
celebrated  of  the  ancient  sewers.  The  solidity  of  this  struc- 
ture  can    be   judged    by   the    fact    that    it    has    been   in 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


33 


34 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


Greek  Women  Bathing 


uninterrupted  service  for  over  2,400  years,  and  at  the  present 
time  is  still  in  use,  with  no  signs  of  immediate  failure.  The 
arches  were  made  of  neatly  jointed  stones  fitted  together 
without  cement. 
It  is  stated  by  Pliny 
that  a  cart  loaded 
with  hay  could  pass 
down  the  Cloaca 
Maxima.  It  should 
be  borne  in  mind, 
however,  that  a 
Roman  cart  and 
load  of  hay  were  of 
smaller  dimensions 
than  a  modern  one. 
The  actual  dimen- 
sions of  the  mouth 
of  the  sewer  are  1 1 
feet  wide  by  12  feet  high.  The  lateral  branches  of  the 
main  sewer  were  of  a  size  in  proportion  with  their 
requirements  and  in  proportion  to  the  main  or  trunk 
sewer.  The  dimensions  of  these  sewers  are  evidenced  by 
the  service  they  performed  for  Nero,  who  threw  into  them 
the  unfortunate  victims  of  his  nightly  riots. 

While  each 
street  in  Rome  was 
provided  with  an 
adequate  sewer,  it  is 
more  than  probable 
that  only  a  small  per- 
centage of  the  popu- 
lation had  branches 
extending  into  their 
houses.  In  those  that 
had,  the  latrines  were 
located  adjacent  to 
the     kitchen,     where 

Greek  Bath  Tubs  thrOUgh        the 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  35 

untrapped  end  of  the  sewer  noxious  gases  were  contin- 
ually arising  to  vitiate  the  surrounding  air.  The  only 
ventilation  the  sewers  of  Rome  had  was  through  these 
untrapped  ends. 

Many  of  the  houses  of  Rome  were  lofty  and  inhabited 
near  the  top  by  the  poor,  who — drainage  systems  not 
extending  above  the  first  floor — had  very  imperfect  means 
for  carrying  off  rubbish  and  other  accumulations.  A  prac- 
tice seems  to  have  grown  up  then  of  throwing  such  liquid 
and  solid  matter  from  the  windows,  sometimes  to  the  dis- 
comfort or  injury  of  hapless  pedestrians. 

To  provide  against  accidents  due  to  this  cause,  the  De- 
jecti  Effusive  Act  was  passed,  which  gave  damages  against 
a  person  who  threw  or  poured  out  anything  from  a  place 
or  upper  chamber  upon  a  road  frequented  by  passersby, 
or  on  a  place  where  people  used  to  stand.  The  act, 
however,  gave  damages  only  when  the  person  was  in- 
jured, but  nothing  was  recoverable  if  the  wearing  ap- 
parel was  damaged.  A  strange  provision  of  this  act 
was  that  it  applied  only  in  the  daytime  and  not  to  the 
night,  which,  however,  was  the  most  dangerous  time 
for   passersby. 


Synopsis  of  Chapter.  Origin  of  Bathing— Early  Greek  Baths— Roman 
Private  Baths— Public  Baths  of  Rome— Ruins  of  Baths  of  Caracalla— Description  of 
the  Thermae- The  Thermae  of  Titus  at  Rome— Baths  of  Pompeii— Heating  Water 
for  Roman  Baths — Thermae  of  Titus  Restored. 

THE  value  of  bathing-  for  pleasure,  cleanliness  and 
health  was  early  realized  by  the  ancients,  who  in 
many  cases  made  the  daily  bath  part  of  their  relig-ious 
ritual,  with  the  hope  of  thus  inducing  a  practice  that  would, 
from  constant  observance,  become  a  habit  not  easy  to  over- 
corn  e ,  and  which 
would  be  a  lasting 
benefit  to  the  health 
of  the  individual  and 
a  safeguard  to  the 
community. 

It  perhaps  was 
among  the  Greeks  that 
bath  tubs  were  first 
introduced.  The  early 
Greek  bathing  vessels 
(see  preceding  wood- 
cuts) were  made  of 
polished  marble, 
shaped  something 
like  a  punch  bowl, 
stood  about  30  inches 
high,  and  were  not 
occupied  by  the  bather 

as    m    a    modern    bath        Mosaic  from  the  Floor  of  the  Baths  of  Caracalla 


37 


38 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


Ruins  of  the  Baths  of  Caracalla,  Rome 


tub,  but  served  only  to  hold  the  water  which  was  applied  to 
the  bather  by  an  attendant,  who  dashed  or  poured,  as  cir- 
cumstances required,  a  vessel  full  of  water  on  his  head  or 
body.  Both  woodcuts  shown  were  reproduced  from  ancient 
Greek  vases  and  convey  a  fair  idea  of  the  way  these  baths 
were  used.  One  of  the  bathers  is  shown  with  an  iron,  bone, 
bronze  or  ivory  instrument  called  a  strigilis,  in  his  hand, 
which  was  used  to  scrape  off  perspiration  when  the  bather 
emerged  from  the  hot  room,  or  induced  a  flow  by  exercising 
in  the  gymnasium,  which  was  generally  connected  with  the 
baths.  The  inscription  on  the  woodcut,  representing  men 
bathing,  shows  that  this  was  a  public  bath,  and  is  probably 
the  earliest  picture  of  a  bathing  establishment  extant.  The 
women's  bath  bowl  differed  but  slightly  from  the  men's. 
It  was  a  trifle  lower  and  considerably  deeper,  but  the 
method  of  using  was  the  same  as  for  the  men. 

While  the  Greeks  were  prior  to  the  Romans  in  the  use 
of  the  bath,    they   considered   it   effeminate  to  use  warm 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


39 


water,  and  consequently  their  bathing  establishments  never 
attained  the  luxury  and  splendor  that  later  marked  the 
Roman  baths.  When  bath  tubs  were  first  introduced  into 
Rome,  the  wealthy  inhabitants  fitted  up  their  houses  with 
a  bathroom  much  as  do  the  people  of  our  own  time.  As 
the  luxury,  pleasure  and  benefit  of  the  bath  became  better 
known,  more  elaborate  bathing  facilities  similar  to  a  modern 
Turkish  bath  were  installed.  In  some  houses  several  rooms 
were  devoted  to  this  purpose.  The  anointment  of  the  body 
with  oils  was  one  of  the  characteristics  of  a  Roman  bath. 
The  practice  was  indulged  in  by  people  of  both  sexes,  and 
the  time  when  applied  depended  much  on  the  treatment 
the  bather  was  taking.  For  instance,  most  bathers  anointed 
the  body  as  the  finishing  touch  of  the  bath,  while  some  bath- 
ers applied  the  oil  before  going  to  the  hot  or  sweat  room. 


Interior  of  the  Frigidarium  or  Cold  Bath,  Caracalla 


No  luxury  can  be  monopolized  by  the  rich,  and  it 
was  not  long  before  public  bathing  establishments,  in  which 
a  small  entrance  fee  was  charged,  were  built  by  private 
capital.  Following  quickly  on  the  heels  of  these  private 
enterprises,  came  the  establishment  of  public  baths,  then. 


40  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

according  to  the  authority  of  Pliny,  for  600  years  Rome 
needed  no  medicine  but  the  public  baths. 

When  the  public  baths  were  first  instituted  they  were 
only  for  the  lower  classes,  who  alone  bathed  in  public. 
The  people  of  wealth  and  those  who  held  positions  of  state 
bathed  in  their  own  homes.  But  this  monopoly  of  the  poor 
was  not  long  enjoyed.  In  the  process  of  time  even  the 
emperors  bathed  in  public  among  their  subjects,  and  we 
read  of  the  abandoned  Gallienus  amusing  himself  by  bath- 
ing in  the  midst  of  the  young  and  old  of  both  sexes,  men, 
women  and  children. 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  Roman  history  a  much  greater 
delicacy  was  observed  with  respect  to  promiscuous  bathing, 
even  among  men,  than  obtained  at  a  later  period.  Virtue 
passed  away  as  wealth  increased,  and  the  public  baths  be- 
came places  of  meeting  and  amusement  where  not  only  did 
men  bathe  together  in  numbers,  but  even  men  and  women 
stripped  and  bathed  promiscuously  in  the  same  bath. 

Some  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the  baths  at  Rome  can 
be  gained  from  a  statement  of  the  number  of  bathers  they 
could  accommodate  at  one  time.  The  baths  of  Diocletian, 
which  were  perhaps  the  most  commodious  of  them  all, 
could  accommodate  at  one  time  3,200  bathers.  One  hall  of 
this  famous  bathing  institution  was  at  a  later  date  converted 
by  Michael  Angelo  into  the  church  of  St.  Marie  de  gli 
Angeli. 

The  baths  of  Caracalla,  built  a.  d.  212,  were  perhaps 
the  most  famous  of  the  baths  of  Rome.  They  were  not  as 
commodious  however  as  many  other  baths,  and  they  had 
accommodations  at  one  time  for  only  1,600  bathers,  or  just 
one-half  that  could  be  accommodated  by  the  baths  of  Dio- 
cletian. 

The  following  description  of  the  Roman  baths,  together 
with  the  historical  sketch  of  the  people  of  that  period  who 
indulged  in  the  luxury,  is  abstracted  from  an  old  dictionary 
of  Greek  and  Roman  antiquities,  published  in  London, 
England,  almost  a  century  ago.  The  illustrations  are  from 
woodcuts  appearing  in  the  article. 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


41 


"In  the  earlier  ages  of  Roman  history  a  much 
greater  delicacy  was  observed  with  respect  to  pro- 
miscuous bathing,  even  among  the  men,  than  was  usual 
among  the  Greeks;  for  according  to  Valerius  Maximus, 
it  was  deemed  indecent  for  a  father  to  bathe  in  com- 
pany with  his  own  son  after  he  had  attained  the  age  of 
puberty,  or  son-in-law  with  his  father-in-law,  the  same 
respectful  reserve  being  shown  to  blood  and  affinity  as 
was  paid  to  the  temples  of  the  gods,  toward  whom  it  was 
considered  an  act  of  irreligion  even  to  appear  naked  in 
any  of  the  places  consecrated  to  their  worship.  But  virtue 
passed  away  as  wealth  increased,  and  when  the  thermae 
came  into  use,  not  only  did  the  men  bathe  together  in 
numbers,  but  even  men  and  women  stripped  and  bathed 
promiscuously  in  the  same  bath.  It  is  true,  however,  that 
the  public  establishment  often  contained  separate  baths 
for  both  sexes  adjoining  each  other,  as  will  be  seen  to  have 
been  also  the  case  at  the  baths  of  Pompeii.     Aulus  Gellius 


Outer  Row  of  Haths,  Caracalla,  Rome 


42  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

relates  a  story  of  a  consul's  wife  who  took  a  whim  to  bathe 
at  Teano,  a  small  provincial  town  of  Campania,  in  the 
men's  baths,  probably  because  in  a  small  town  the  female 
department,  like  that  at  Pompeii,  was  more  confined  and 
less  convenient  than  that  assigned  to  the  men,  and  an 
order  was  consequently  given  to  the  quaestor  to  turn  the 
men  out.  But  whether  the  men  and  women  were  allowed 
to  use  each  other's  chambers  indiscriminately,  or  that 
some  of  the  public  baths  had  only  one  common  set  of 
baths  for  both,  the  custom  prevailed  under  the  empire  of 
men  and  women  bathing  indiscriminately  together.  This 
custom  was  forbidden  by  Hadrian,  and  Alexander  Severus 
prohibited  any  baths  common  to  both  sexes  from  being 
opened  in  Rome. 

When  the  public  baths  were  first  instituted  they  were 
only  for  the  lower  orders,  who  alone  bathed  in  public,  the 
people  of  wealth,  as  well  as  those  who  formed  the  Eques- 
trian and  Senatorian  orders,  using  private  baths  in  their 
own  houses.  But  this  monopoly  was  not  long  enjoyed, 
for  as  early  even  as  the  time  of  Julius  Caesar,  we  find  no 
less  a  personage  than  the  mother  of  Augustus  making  use 
of  the  public  establishments,  which  were  probably  at  that 
time  separated  from  the  men's,  and,  in  process  of  time, 
even  the  emperors  themselves  bathed  in  public  with  the 
meanest  of  the  people.  Thus  Hadrian  often  bathed  in 
public  among  the  herd,  and  even  the  virtuous  Alexander 
Severus  took  his  bath  among  the  populace  in  the  thermae 
he  had  himself  erected,  as  well  as  in  those  of  his  predeces- 
sors, and  returned  to  the  palace  in  his  bathing  dress;  and 
the  abandoned  Gallienus  amused  himself  by  bathing  in  the 
midst  of  the  young  and  old  of  both  sexes,  men,  women 
and  children. 

The  baths  were  opened  at  sunrise  and  closed  at  sunset, 
but  in  the  time  of  Alexander  Severus,  it  would  appear  that 
they  were  kept  open  nearly  all  night,  for  he  is  stated  to 
have  furnished  oil  for  his  own  thermae,  which  previously 
were  not  opened  before  daybreak  and  were  shut  before 
sunset;  and  Juvenal  includes  in  his  catalogue  of  female 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  4B 

immoralities  that  of  taking-  the  bath  at  night,  which  may, 
however,  refer  to  private  baths. 

The  price  of  a  bath  was  a  quadrant,  the  smallest  piece 
of  coined  money  from  the  age  of  Cicero  downward,  which 
was  paid  to  the  keeper  of  the  bath.  Children  below  a  cer- 
tain ag-e  were  admitted  free,  and  strangers,  also  foreigners, 
were  admitted  to  some  of  the  baths,  if  not  to  all,  without 
payment. 

The  baths  were  closed  when  any  misfortune  happened 
to  the  republic,  and  Sentonius  says  that  the  Emperor 
Caligula  made  it  a  capital  offence  to  indulge  in  the  luxury 
of  bathing  upon  any  religious  holiday.  The  baths  were 
originally  placed  under  the  superintendence  of  the  aediles, 
whose  business  it  was  also  to  keep  them  in  repair,  and  to 
see  that  they  were  kept  clean  and  of  a  proper  temperature. 

The  time  usually  assigned  by  the  Romans  for  taking 
the  bath  was  the  eighth  hour  or  shortly  afterward.  Before 
that  time  none  but  invalids  were  allowed  to  bathe  in 
public.  Vilruvins  reckoned  the  best  hours  adapted  for 
bathing  to  be  from  midday  until  about  sunset.  Pliny  took 
his  bath  at  the  ninth  hour  in  summer  and  the  eighth  in 
winter;  and  Martial  speaks  of  taking  a  bath  when  fatigued 
and  weary  at  the  tenth  hour  and  even  later. 

When  the  water  was  ready  and  the  baths  prepared, 
notice  was  given  by  the  sound  of  a  bell.  One  of  these  bells 
with  the  inscription  Firmi  Balneatoris  was  found  in  the 
thermae  Diocletiane,   in  the  year  1548. 

When  the  bath  was  used  for  health  merely  or  cleanli- 
ness, a  single  one  was  considered  sufficient  at  a  time,  and 
that  one  only  when  requisite.  But  the  luxuries  of  the 
empire  knew  no  such  bounds,  and  the  daily  bath  was 
sometimes  repeated  as  many  as  seven  and  eight  times  in 
succession.  It  was  the  usual  and  constant  habit  of  the 
Romans  to  take  the  bath  after  exercise,  and  previous  to 
the  principal  meal;  but  the  debauchees  of  the  empire 
bathed  also  after  eating,  as  well  as  before,  in  order  to  pro- 
mote digestion  so  as  to  acquire  a  new  appetite  for  fresh 
delicacies.      Nero  is  said  to  have  indulged  in  this  practice. 


44  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

Upon  quitting  the  bath,  it  was  usual  for  the  Romans, 
as  well  as  the  Greeks,  to  be  anointed  with  oil;  indeed, 
after  bathing,  both  sexes  anointed  themselves,  the  women 
as  well  as  the  men,  in  order  that  the  skin  might  not  be  left 
harsh  and  rough,  especially  after  hot  water.  Oil  is  the 
only  ointment  mentioned  by  Homer  as  used  for  this  pur- 
pose, and  Pliny  says  the  Greeks  had  no  better  ointment  at 
the  time  of  the  Trojan  war  than  oil  perfumed  with  herbs. 
A  particular  habit  of  body  or  tendency  to  certain  com- 
plaints, sometimes  required  the  order  to  be  reversed  and 
the  anointment  to  take  place  before  bathing.  For  this 
reason,  Augustus,  who  suffered  from  nervous  disorders, 
was  accustomed  to  anoint  himself  before  bathing,  and  a 
similar  practice  was  adopted  by  Alexander  Severus.  The 
most  usual  practice,  however,  seems  to  have  been  to  take 
some  gentle  exercise  in  the  first  instance,  and  then  after 
bathing  to  be  anointed  either  in  the  sun  or  in  the  tepid  or 
thermal  chamber,  and  finally  to  take  their  food. 

The  Romans  did  not  content  themselves  with  a  single 
bath  of  hot  or  cold  water,  but  they  went  through  a  course 
of  baths  in  succession,  in  which  the  agency  of  air  as  well 
as  water  was  applied.  It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  the  precise 
order  in  which  the  course  was  usually  taken,  if  indeed 
there  was  any  general  practice  beyond  the  whim  of  the 
individual.  Under  medical  treatment,  of  course,  the  suc- 
cession would  be  regulated  by  the  nature  of  the  disease  for 
which  a  cure  was  sought,  and  would  vary  also  according  to 
the  different  practice  of  different  physicians.  It  is  certain, 
however,  that  it  was  a  general  practice  to  close  the  pores 
and  brace  the  body  after  the  excessive  perspiration  of  the 
vapor  bath,  either  by  pouring  cold  water  over  the  head, 
or  by  plunging  at  once  into  the  tank.  Musa,  the  physician 
of  Augustus,  is  said  to  have  introduced  the  practice  which 
became  quite  the  fashion,  in  consequence  of  the  benefit 
which  the  emperor  derived  from  it,  though  Dion  accuses 
him  of  having  artfully  caused  the  death  of  Marcellus  by  an 
improper  application  of  the  same  treatment.  In  other 
cases  it  was  considered  conducive  to  health  to  pour  warm 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  45 

water  over  the  head  before  the  vapor  bath,  and  cold  water 
immediately  after  it;  and  at  other  times  a  succession  of 
warm,   tepid  and  cold  water  was  resorted  to. 

The  two  physicians,  Galen  and  Celsus,  differ  in  some 
respects  as  to  the  order  in  which  the  baths  should  be 
taken;  the  former  recommending-  first  the  hot  air  of  lacon- 
icum,  next  the  bath  of  warm  water,  afterward  the  cold,  and 
finally  to  be  well  rubbed;  while  the  latter  recommends  his 
patients  first  to  sweat  for  a  short  time  in  the  tepid  chamber 
without  undressing,  then  to  proceed  into  the  thermal 
chamber,  and  after  having  gone  through  a  regular  course 
of  perspiration  there,  not  to  descend  into  the  warm  bath, 
but  to  pour  a  quantity  of  warm  water  over  the  head,  then 
tepid,  and  finally  cold;  afterward  to  be  scraped  with  the 
strigil  and  finally  rubbed  dry  and  anointed.  Such  in  all 
probability  was  the  usual  habit  of  the  Romans  when  the 
bath  was  resorted  to  as  a  daily  source  of  pleasure,  and  not 
for  any  particular  medical  treatment;  the  more  so  as  it 
resembles  in  many  respects  the  system  of  bathing  still  in 
practice  among  the  Orientals  who  succeeded  by  conquest 
to  the  luxuries  of  the  enervated  Greeks  and  Romans. 

Having  thus  detailed  from  classical  authorities  the 
general  habits  of  the  Romans  in  connection  with  their 
systems  of  bathing,  it  now  remains  to  examine  and  explain 
the  internal  arrangements  of  the  structures  which  con- 
tained their  baths,  which  will  serve  as  a  practical  com- 
mentary upon  all  that  has  been  said.  Indeed,  there  are 
more  ample  and  better  materials  for  acquiring  a  thorough 
insight  into  Roman  manners  in  this  one  particular  than  for 
any  of  the  other  usages  connected  with  their  daily  habit. 

In  order  to  make  the  subjoined  description  clear,  a 
reproduction  from  an  old  woodcut  of  a  fresco  painting  on 
the  walls  of  the  thermae  of  Titus  at  Rome,  is  here  repro- 
duced, showing  in  broken  perspective  the  general  arrange- 
ment of  one  of  the  baths  known  as  the  thermae.  Heat  was 
supplied  to  warm  the  apartments  and  the  water  used  in  the 
baths  by  the  furnace  shown  extending  under  the  entire 
floor  of  the  establishment.      This  furnace  was  known  as  a 


46 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


Thermae  of  Titus  at  Rome 


Hypocustum.  To  the  right  may  be  seen  the  vessels  in  which 
water  for  the  baths  was  heated.  The  topmost  vessel,  the 
Frigidarium,  contained  cold  water  from  which  the  hot 
water  tanks  and  the  various  baths  were  supplied.     Next  in 

order  is  the  tep- 
idarium,  in  which 
water  of  moder- 
ate temperature 
was  stored,  and 
in  the  lowest, 
the  caldarium, 
was  heated  the 
hottest  water 
used  in  the  baths. 
After  the  end  of 
the  republic,  large  establishments  used  to  have  a  sepa- 
rate steam  bath,  the  laconicum,  and  in  this  apartment,  or 
sometimes  adjoining  the  tepidarium,  was  the  Clipeus,  a 
small  circular  chamber  covered  by  a  cupola.  The  Clipeus 
received  its  light  through  an  aperture  in  the  center  of  the 
dome,  and  this 
aperture  served 
also  as  a  vent  from 
the  chamber.  The 
Clipeus  was  heated 
by  means  of  a  sep- 
arate heating 
apparatus,  and  its 
temperature  could 
be  raised  to  an 
enormous  degree 
or  could  be  regu- 
lated to  suit  the 
bather  by  raising 
or  lowering  the 
shield. 

The     tepida- 
rium,  as  the  name  Cllpeus,    From  an  old  woodcut 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


47 


would  imply,  was  a  room  in  which  a  moderately  warm  bath 
could  be  taken  and  where  the  process  of  dry  rubbing  also 
took  place.  In  the  balneum  a  hot  bath  could  be  taken, 
originally  in  a  tub,  but  in  later  times  in  a  large  reservoir ; 
and  in  the  frigidarium  a  cold  plunge  could  be  had.  The 
elseothesium  was  the  anointing  room  where  the  body  was 
rubbed  with  oil  and  massaged. 

A  good  idea  of  the  general  layout  of  a  Roman  bath  can 
be  gained  from  the  accompanying  woodcut,  showing  the 
ground  floor  plan  of  the  baths  of  Pompeii.  The  baths,  as 
may  be  seen  by  the  illustration,  are  nearly  surrounded  on 
three  sides  by  houses  and  shops.  The  whole  building, 
which  comprises  a  double  set  of  baths,  has  six  different 
entrances  from  the  street,  one  of  which,  A,  gives  admis- 
sion to  the  smaller  set  only,  which  was  appropriated  to 
the  women,  and  five  others  to  the  male  department,  of 
which  two,  B  and  C,  communicate  directly  with  the  fur- 
naces, and  the  other  three,  D,  E,  F,  with  the  bathing  apart- 
ments, of  which 
F,  the  nearest  to 
the  Forum,  was 
the  principal  one; 
the  other  two,  D 
and  E,  being  on 
opposite  sides  of 
the  building 
served  for  the  con- 
venience of  those 
who  lived  on  the 
north  and  east 
sides  of  the  city. 
To  have  a  variety 
of  entrances  was 
one  of  the  qualities 
considered  necessary  to  a  well  constructed  set  of  baths. 

Passing  through  the  principal  entrance,  F,  which  is 
removed  from  the  street  by  a  narrow  footway,  and  after 
descending  three  steps,  the  bather  finds  upon  his  left  hand 


Floor  Plan  of  the  Baths  of  Pompeii 
From  an  old  woodcut 


48 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


a  small  chamber  or  toilet  room,  i,  which  contains  a  latrine. 
From  passage,  F,  he  proceeded  to  covered  portico,  2,  which 
ran  around  three  sides  of  an  open  court,  3,  and  this  por- 
tico and  court  together  formed  the  vestibule  of  the  baths, 
in  which  servants  belonging  to  the  establishment,  as  well 
as  such  of  the  slaves  and  attendants  of  the  great  and  wealthy, 
whose  services  were  not  required  in  the  interior,  waited. 
Within  the  court  the  keeper  of  the  baths  who  exacted  the 
fee  paid  by  each  visitor,  was  also  stationed,  and  accordingly 
in  it  was  found  the  box  for  holding  the  money.  The  room,  4, 
which  runs  back  from  the  portico,  might  have  been  appor- 
tioned to  him,  or  if  not,  it  might  have  been  a  waiting  room  for 
the  convenience  of  the  better  classes  while  waiting  the  return 

of  their  acquaint- 
ances from  the 
interior.  In  this 
court,  likewise, 
as  being  the  most 
public  place,  ad- 
vertisements for 
the  theater  and 
other  announce- 
ments of  general 
interest  were 
posted,  one  of 
which,  announc- 
ing a  gladiatorial 
show,  still  re- 
mains. The  pass- 
ageway, 5,  is  the  corridor  which  leads  from  the  entrance,  E, 
to  the  vestibule;  and  the  cell,  6,  is  a  toilet  room  similar 
to  I.  Number  7  is  a  passage  of  communication  which 
leads  into  the  chamber,  8,  which  served  as  a  room  for  un- 
dressing. This  room  is  also  accessible  from  the  street  by 
the  door,  D,  through  the  corridor,  9,  in  which  a  small 
niche  is  observable,  which  probably  served  for  the  station 
of  another  doorkeeper,  who  collected  money  from  those 
entering  from  the  north  street.     Here,  then,  is  the  center 


Frigidarium.     From  an  old  woodcut 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  49 

in  which  all  the  persons  must  have  met  before  entering 
into  the  interior  of  the  baths;  and  its  locality,  as  well  as 
other  characteristic  features  of  its  fitting  up,  leave  no  room 
to  doubt  that  it  served  as  an  undressing  room.  It  does 
not  appear  that  any  general  rule  of  construction  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  architects  of  antiquity  with  regard  to  the 
locality  and  temperature  best  adapted  for  a  dressing  room. 
The  bathers  were  expected  to  take  off  their  garments  in 
the  dressing  room,  not  being  permitted  to  enter  the  interior 
unless  naked.  The  clothes  were  then  delivered  to  a  class 
of  slaves  whose  duty  it  was  to  take  charge  of  them.  These 
men  were  notorious  for  dishonesty,  and  leagued  with  all 
the  thieves  of  the  city,  so  that  they  connived  at  the  rob- 
beries they  were  placed  there  to  prevent.  To  so  great 
an  extent  were  these  robberies  carried,  that  very  severe 
laws  were  finally  enacted  making  the  crime  of  stealing 
from  a  bath  a  capital  offence. 

To  return  to  the  chamber  itself,  it  is  vaulted  and 
spacious,  with  stone  seats  along  two  sides  of  the  wall  and 
a  step  for  the  feet  below,  slightly  raised  from  the  floor. 
Holes  can  still  be  seen  in  the  walls  which  might  have 
served  for  pegs  on  which  the  garments  were  hung  when 
taken  off;  for  in  a  small  provincial  town  like  Pompeii, 
where  a  robbery  committed  in  the  bath  could  scarcely 
escape  detection,  there  would  be  no  necessity  for  slaves  to 
take  charge  of  them.  The  dressing  room  was  lighted  by  a 
window  closed  with  glass,  and  the  walls  and  ceilings  were 
ornamented  with  stucco  mouldings  and  painted  yellow. 
There  are  no  less  than  six  doors  to  this  chamber:  one 
leading  to  the  entrance,  E,  another  to  the  entrance,  D,  a 
third  to  the  small  room,  ii,  a  fourth  to  the  furnaces,  a 
fifth  to  the  tepid  apartment,  and  the  sixth  opened  upon 
the  cold  baths,  lo.  The  bath,  which  is  coated  with  white 
marble,  is  12  feet  10  inches  in  diameter,  about  3  feet  deep 
and  has  two  marble  steps  to  facilitate  the  descent  into  it, 
and  a  seat  surrounding  it  at  a  depth  of  10  inches  from  the 
bottom,  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the  bathers  to  sit 
down   and   wash   themselves.       It   is  probable   that  many 


50 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


persons  contented  themselves  with  cold  baths  only,  instead 
of  going  through  the  severe  course  of  perspiration  in  the 
warm  apartments ;  and  as  the  frigidarium  could  have  had 
no  effect  alone  in  baths  like  these,  the  natatio  must  be 
referred  to  when  it  is  said  that  at  one  period  cold  baths 
were  in  such  request  that  scarcely  any  others  were  used. 

There  is  a  platform  or  ambulatory  around  the  bath, 
also  of  marble,  and  four  inches  of  the  same  material  dis- 
posed at  regular  intervals  around  the  walls,  with  pedestals 
for  statues  probably  placed  in  them.  The  ceiling  is 
vaulted  and  the  chamber  lighted  by  a  window  in  the 
center.  The  annexed  woodcut  represents  a  frigidarium 
with  its  cold  bath  at  one  extremity,  supposed  to  have 
formed  a  part  of  the  Formain  Villa  of  Cicero,  to  whose 
age  the  style  of  construction,  the  use  of  the  simple  Doric 
order,  undoubtedly  belongs.  The  bath  itself,  into  which 
water  still  continues  to  flow  from  a  neighboring  spring,  is 
placed  under  the  alcove,  and  the  two  doors  on  each  side 
opened  into  small  chambers. 

In  the  cold  bath  of  Pompeii  the  water  ran  into  the 
basin  through  a  spout  of  bronze  and  was  carried  off  again 
through  a  conduit  on  the  opposite  side.  It  was  also  fur- 
nished with  a  waste  pipe  under  the  coping  to  prevent  the 

water  from  run- 
ning over. 

No.  II  is  a 
small  chamber  on 
the  side  opposite 
to  the  frigidar- 
ium, which  might 
have  served  for 
shaving  or  for 
keepingunguents 
or  strigils;  and 
from  the  centers 
of  the  side  of  the 
frigidarium,    the 

Atlantes.    From  an  old  woodcut  bather        whO 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  51 

intended  to  go  through  the  process  of  warm  bathing  and 
sudation  entered  into  12,  the  tepidarium. 

The  tepidarium  did  not  contain  water,  either  at  Pom- 
peii or  at  the  baths  of  Hippias,  but  was  merely  heated 
with  warm  air  of  an  agreeable  temperature,  in  order  to 
prepare  the  body  for  the  great  heat  of  the  vapor  and 
warm  baths ;  and,  upon  returning,  to  obviate  the  danger  of 
too  sudden  transition  to  the  open  air. 

In  the  baths  of  Pompeii,  this  chamber  served  likewise 
as  a  disrobing  room  for  those  who  took  the  warm  bath,  for 
which  purpose  the  fittings  up  are  evidently  adapted,  the 
walls  being  divided  into  a  number  of  separate  compart- 
ments or  recesses  for  receiving  the  garments  when  taken 
off.  One  of  these  compartments,  known  as  an  Atlantes,  is 
shown  in  the  annexed  woodcut. 

In  addition  to  this  service  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  this  apartment  was  used  as  a  depository  for  unguents 
and  a  room  for  anointing,  which  service  was  performed  by 
slaves.  For  the  purpose  of  anointing,  the  common  people 
used  oil  simply  or  sometimes  scented,  but  the  more  wealthy 
classes  indulged  in  the  greatest  extravagances  with  regard 
to  their  perfumes  and  unguents.  These  they  evidently 
procured  from  the  elasothesium  of  the  baths,  or  brought 
with  them  in  small  glass  bottles,  hundreds  of  which  have 
been  discovered  in  different  excavations  made  in  various 
parts  of  Italy. 

From  the  tepidarium,  a  door  which  closed  by  its  own 
weight,  to  prevent  the  admission  of  cold  air,  opened  into 
No.  13,  the  thermal  chamber.  After  having  gone  through 
the  regular  course  of  perspiration,  the  Romans  made  use 
of  instruments  called  strigils,  to  scrape  off  the  perspiration, 
m.uch  in  the  same  way  as  we  are  accustomed  to  scrape  the 
sweat  off  a  horse  with  a  piece  of  iron  hoop  after  he  has  run 
a  heat  or  come  in  from  violent  exercise.  These  instru- 
ments, many  of  which  have  been  discovered  among  the 
ruins  of  the  various  baths  of  antiquity,  were  made  of  bone, 
bronze,  iron  and  silver.  The  poorer  classes  were  obliged 
to    scrape   themselves,   but   the    more   wealthy  took    their 


53 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


slaves  to  the  baths  for  the  purpose,  a  fact  which  is  eluci- 
dated by  a  curious  story  related  by  Spartianus.  The 
Emperor  while  bathing  one  day,  observing  an  old  soldier, 
whom  he  had  formerly  known  among  the  legions,  rubbing 
his  back  as  the  cattle  do  against  the  marble  walls  of  the 
chamber,  asked  him  why  he  converted  the  walls  into  a 
strigil,  and  learning  that  he  was  too  poor  to  keep  a  slave  he 
gave  him  one,  and  money  for  his  maintenance.  On  the 
following  day,  upon  his  return  to  the  bath,  he  found  a 
whole  row  of  old  men  rubbing  themselves  in  the  same 
manner  against  the  wall,  in  the  hope  of  experiencing  the 
same  good  fortune  from  the  prince's  liberality ;  but  instead 

of  taking  the  hint,  he 
had  them  all  called 
up  and  told  them  to 
scrub  one  another. 
The  strigil  was 
,  by  no  means  a  blunt 
instrument,  conse- 
quently its  edge  was 
softened  by  the  appli- 
cation of  oil  which 
was  dropped  on  it 
from  a  small  vessel. 
From  an  old  This  vcsscl  had  a  nar- 
row neck,  so  as  to  dis- 
charge its  contents  drop  by  drop.  Augustus  is  related 
to  have  suffered  from  an  over  violent  use  of  this  instrument. 
Invalids  and  persons  of  delicate  habit  made  use  of  sponges, 
which  Pliny  says  answered  for  towels  as  well  as  strigils. 
They  were  finally  dried  with  towels  and  anointed. 

The  common  people  were  supplied  with  these  neces- 
saries in  the  baths,  but  the  more  wealthy  carried  their  own 
with  them. 

After  the  operation  of  scraping  and  rubbing  dry,  they 
retired  into  or  remained  in  the  tepidarium  until  they 
thought  it  prudent  to  encounter  the  open  air.  But  it  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  customary  to  bathe  in  the  water, 


Coppers  for  Heating  Water, 
woodcut 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  53 

when  there  was  any,  which  was  not  the  case  at  Pompeii 
nor  at  the  Baths  of  Hippias,  either  of  the  tepidarium  or 
frigidarium;  the  temperature  only  of  the  atmosphere  in 
the  two  chambers  being  of  consequence  to  break  the 
sudden  change  from  the  extreme  hot  to  cold.  Returning 
now  to  the  frigidarium,  8,  which  according  to  the  direc- 
tions of  Vitruvius  has  a  passage,  14,  communicating  with 
the  mouth  of  the  furnace,  ^,  and  passing  down  that  passage 
we  reach  the  chamber,  15,  into  which  the  praefurnium  pro- 
jects, and  which  has  also  an  entrance  from  the  street,  B, 
appropriated  to  those  who  had  charge  of  the  fires.  There 
are  two  stairways  in  it,  one  leading  to  the  roof  of  the  baths, 
and  the  other  to  the  coppers  which  contained  the  water. 
Of  these  there  were  three,  one  of  which  contained  the  hot 
water,  caldarium;  the  second,  the  tepid,  tepidarium;  and 
the  last,  the  cold,  frigidarium.  The  warm  water  was 
introduced  into  the  warm  bath  by  means  of  a  conduit  pipe, 
marked  on  the  plan,  and  conducted  through  the  wall. 
Underneath  the  caldarium  was  placed  the  furnace  which 
served  to  heat  the  water  and  give  out  streams  of  warm  air 
into  the  hollow  cells  of  the  hypocanstum.  These  coppers 
were  constructed  in  the  same  manner  as  is  represented  in 
the  engraving  from  the  Thermae  of  Titus;  the  one  contain- 
ing hot  water  being  placed  immediately  over  the  furnace, 
and  as  the  water  was  drawn  out  from  these  it  was  supplied 
from  the  next,  the  tepidarium,  which  was  already  consider- 
ably heated,  from  its  contiguity  to  the  furnace  and  the 
hypocaust  below  it,  so  that  it  supplied  the  deficiency  of 
the  former  without  materially  diminishing  its  teinperature; 
and  the  space  in  the  last  two  was  in  turn  filled  up  from  the 
farthest  removed,  which  contained  the  cold  water  received 
direct  from  the  square  reservoir  behind  them.  Behind  the 
coppers  there  is  another  corridor,  16,  leading  into  the 
court,  17,  appropriated  to  the  servants  of  the  baths,  and 
which  has  also  the  conveniences  of  an  immediate  commu- 
nication with  the  street  by  the  door,  C. 

We  now  proceed  to  the  adjoining  set  of  baths,  which 
were    assigned    to    the  women.     The    entrance    is   by    the 


54  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

door,  A,  which  conducts  into  a  small  vestibule,  i8,  thence 
into  the  apodyterium,  19,  which,  like  the  one  in  the  men's 
baths,  has  a  seat  on  either  side  built  up  against  the  wall. 
This  room  opens  upon  a  cold  bath,  20,  answering  to  the 
natiatio  of  the  other  set,  but  of  much  smaller  dimensions. 
There  are  four  steps  on  the  inside  to  descend  into  it. 
Opposite  to  the  door  of  entrance  there  is  another  doorway 
which  leads  to  the  tepidarium,  21,  which  also  communicates 
with  the  thermal  chamber,  22,  on  one  side  of  which  is  a 
warm  bath  in  a  square  recess.  The  floor  of  this  chamber 
is  suspended  and  its  walls  perforated  for  flues,  like  the 
corresponding  one  in  the  men's  baths. 

The  comparative  smallness  and  inferiority  of  the  flttings 
up  in  this  suit  of  baths  has  induced  some  Italian  antiqua- 
ries to  throw  a  doubt  upon  the  fact  of  their  being  assigned 
to  women,  and  ingeniously  suggest  that  they  were  a  set  of 
old  baths,  to  which  the  larger  ones  were  subsequently 
added  when  they  became  too  small  for  the  increasing 
wealth  and  population  of  the  city.  But  the  story  already 
quoted  of  the  consul's  wife  who  turned  the  men  out  of 
their  bath  at  Teanum  for  her  convenience,  seems  suffi- 
ciently to  negative  such  a  supposition  and  to  prove  that 
the  inhabitants  of  ancient  Italy,  if  not  more  selfish,  were 
certainly  less  gallant  than  their  successors.  In  addition  to 
this,  Vitruvius  expressly  enjoins  that  the  baths  of  the  men 
and  women,  though  separate,  should  be  contiguous  to  each 
other,  in  order  that  they  might  be  supplied  from  the  same 
boilers  and  hypocaust;  directions  that  are  here  fulfilled  to 
the  letter,  as  a  glance  at  the  plans  will  demonstrate. 

Notwithstanding  the  ample  account  which  has  been 
given  of  the  plans  and  usages  respecting  baths  in  general, 
something  yet  remains  to  be  said  about  that  particular  class 
denominated  iheruice,  of  which  establishment  the  baths,  in 
fact,  constituted  the  smallest  part.  The  thermae,  properly 
speaking,  were  a  Roman  adaptation  of  the  Greek  gymna- 
sium. The  thermae  contained  a  system  of  baths  in  conjunc- 
tion with  conveniences  for  athletic  games  and  youthful 
sports,  places  in  which  rhetoricians  declaimed,  poets  recited 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


55 


and  philosophers  lectured,  as  well  as  porticos  and  vesti- 
bules for  the  idle,  and  libraries  for  the  studious.  They 
were  decorated  with  the  finest  objects  of  art,  both  in  paint- 
ing and  sculpture,  covered  with  precious  marbles  and 
adorned  with  fountains  and  shaded  walks.  It  may  be 
said  that  they  began  and  ended  with  the  Empire,  for  it 
was  not  until  the  time  of  Augustus  that  these  magnificent 
structures  were  commenced.  M.  Agrippa  was  the  first  who 
afforded  these  luxuries  to  his  countrymen  by  bequeathing 
to  them  the  thermae  and  gardens  which  he  had  erected  in 
the  Campus  Martins.  The  Pantheon,  now  existing  at 
Rome,  served  originally  as  a  vestibule  to  these  baths;  and, 
as  it  was  considered  too  magnificent  for  the  purpose,  it  is 
supposed  that  Agrippa  added  the  portico  and  consecrated 
it  as  a  temple,  for  which  use  it  still  serves. 

The  example  set  by  Agrippa  was  followed  by  Nero 
and  afterward  by  Titus,  the  ruins  of  whose  thermae  are 
still  visible,  covering  a  vast  extent,  partly  under  ground 
and  partly  above  the  Esquiline  Hill. 

Previous  to  the  erection  of  these  establishments  for 
the  use  of  the  population,  it  was  customary,  for  those  who 
sought  the  favor 
of  the  people,  to 
give  them  a  day's 
bathing  free  of  ex- 
pense. 

Thus,  accord- 
ing to  Divi  Cas- 
sius,  Faustus,  the 
son  of  Sulla,  fur- 
nished warm  baths 
andoil  gratis  to  the 
people  for  one  day ; 
and  Augustus, 
on  one  occasion, 
furnished  warm 
baths  and  barbers 

.        .  1  1        r    „       Ground  Plan  of  Thermae  of  Caracalla. 

to  the  people   for  ^^^,^^^ 


From  an  old 


56  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

tlie  same  period  free  of  expense,  and  at  another  time  for  a 
whole  year  to  the  women  as  well  as  the  men.  From  thence 
it  is  fair  to  infer  that  the  quadrant  paid  for  admission  to  the 
balnea  was  not  exacted  at  the  thermae,  which  as  being  the 
works  of  the  emperors,  would  naturally  be  opened  with  im- 
perial generosity  to  all,  and  without  any  charge,  otherwise 
the  whole  city  would  have  thronged  to  the  establishment 
bequeathed  to  them  by  Agrippa;  and  in  confirmation  of 
this  opinion  it  might  be  remarked  that  the  old  establish- 
ments, which  were  probably  erected  by  private  enterprises, 
were  termed  Meritorial. 

Most,  if  not  all,  of  the  other  regulations  previously 
detailed  as  relating  to  the  economy  of  the  baths,  apply 
equally  to  the  thermae;  but  it  is  in  these  establishments 
especially  that  the  dissolute  conduct  of  the  emperors  and 
other  luxurious  indulgence  of  the  people  in  general,  as 
detailed  in  the  compositions  of  the  satirists  and  later 
writers,  must  be  considered  to  refer. 

Although  considerable  remains  of  the  Roman  thermae 
are  still  visible,  yet,  from  the  very  ruinous  state  in  which 
they  are  found,  we  are  far  from  being  able  to  arrive  at  the 
same  accurate  knowledge  of  their  component  parts  and  the 
usages  to  which  they  were  applied,  as  has  been  done  with 
respect  to  the  balnea;  or,  indeed,  to  discover  a  satisfactory 
mode  of  reconciling  their  constructive  details  with  the 
description  left  us  by  Vitruvious  and  Lucian.  All,  indeed, 
is  doubt  and  guesswork.  Each  of  the  learned  men  who 
have  pretended  to  give  an  account  of  their  contents  differ- 
ing in  all  the  essential  particulars  from  one  another;  and 
yet  the  general  similarity  of  the  ground  plan  of  the  three 
which  still  remain  cannot  fail  to  strike  even  a  superficial 
observer;  so  great  indeed  that  it  is  impossible  not  to  per- 
ceive at  once  that  they  were  all  constructed  upon  a  similar 
plan.  Not,  however,  to  discuss  the  subject  without  enabling 
the  reader  to  form  something  like  a  general  idea  of  these 
enormous  edifices,  which  from  their  extent  and  magnifi- 
cence have  been  likened  to  provinces,  a  ground  plan  of 
the  thermae  of  Caracalla  is  annexed,  which  are   the  best 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


57 


preserved  among  those  remaining,  and  which  were  per- 
haps more  splendid  than  all  the  rest.  Those  apartments 
of  which  the  use  is  ascertained  with  the  appearances  of 
probability,  will  be  alone  marked  and  explained.  The  dark 
parts  represent  the  remains  still  visible;  the  open  lines  are 
restorations. 

A  is  a  portico  fronting  the  street  made  by  Caracalla 
when  he  constructed  his  thermae.  B  are  separate  bathing- 
rooms,  either  for  the  use  of  the  common  people,  or  per- 
haps for  any  person  who  did  not  wish  to  bathe  in  public. 
C  are  apodyteria  attached  to  them.  D,  D  and  E,  E,  the 
porticos.  F,  F, 
exedra  in  which 
there  were  seats 
for  the  philoso- 
phers to  hold  their 
conversations. 
G,  passages  open 
to  the  air.  H,  H, 
sladra.  I,  I,  possi- 
bly  schools  or 
academies  where 
public  lectures 
were  delivered. 
J,  J  and  K,  K, 
rooms  appropri- 
ated to  the  ser- 
vants of  the  bath. 
In  the  latter  are  staircases  for  ascending  to  the  principal 
reservoir.  L,  space  occupied  by  walks  and  shrubberies. 
M,  the  arena  or  stadium  in  which  the  youth  performed 
their  exercises,  with  seats  for  spectators.  N,  N,  reservoirs 
with  upper  stories;  O,  aqueduct  which  supplied  the  baths. 
P,  cistern. 

This  external  range  of  buildings  occupies  one  mile  in 
circuit. 

We  now  come  to  the  arrangement  of  the  interior,  for 
which  it  is  very  difficult  to  assign  satisfactory  destinations. 


Hypocaust  for  Heating  Water,  Thermas  of  Caracalla 
From  an  old  woodcut 


58 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


Q  represents  the  principal  entrances,  of  which  there  were 
eight.  R  is  the  natiatio  or  cold  water  baths  to  which  the 
direct  entrance  from  the  portico  is  by  a  vestibule  on  either 
side  marked  S,  and  which  is  surrounded  by  a  set  of  cham- 
bers that  serve  most  probably  as  rooms  for  undressing  and 
anointing. 

Those  nearest  to  the  peristyle  were,  perhaps,  where 
the  powder  was  kept  which  the  wrestlers  used  in  order  to 
obtain  a  firmer  grip  upon  their  adversaries. 

The  inferior  quality  of  the  ornaments  which  these 
apartments  had,  and  the  staircases  in  two  of  them,  afford 
evidences  that  they  were  occupied  by  menials.  T  is 
considered  to  be  the  tepidarium  with  four  warm  baths  taken 
out  of  its  four  angles,  and  two  labra  on  its  two  flanks. 
There  are  steps  for  descending  into  the  baths,  in  one  of 
which  traces  of  the  conduit  are  still  manifest.  It  would 
appear  that  the  center  part  of  this  apartment  served  as  a 
tepidarium,  having  a  cold  water  lavatory  in  four  of  its 
corners.  The  center  part,  like  that  also  of  the  preceding 
apartment,  is  supported  by  eight  immense  columns. 

The  apartments  beyond  this,  which  are  too  much  dilap- 
idated to  be  restored  with  any  degree  of  certainty,  con- 
tained, of  course,  the  laconium  and  sudatories,  for  which 
the  round  chamber,  W,  and  its  appurtenances  seem  to  be 


Restoration  of  Thermse  of  Titus.    (Restored  by  Leclerc) 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


59 


adapted,  and  which  are  also  contiguous  to  the  reservoirs, 
Z,  Z'.    The  apartments  e,  e'  are  probably  places  where  youths 


Plan  of  the  Therma;  of  Titus,  Rome.     (Restored  by  Leclerc) 

were  taught  their  exercises,   with  the  appurtenances  be- 
longing to  them.     The  chambers  on  the  other  side,  which 


60  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

are  not  marked,  probably  served  for  the  exercises  in  bad 
weather.  These  baths  contained  an  upper  story,  of  which 
nothing  remains  beyond  what  is  just  sufficient  to  indicate 
the  fact.  It  will  be  observed  that  there  is  no  part  of  the 
bathing  department  separate  from  the  rest  which  could  be 
assigned  to  the  use  of  women  exclusively.  From  this  it 
must  be  inferred  either  that  both  sexes  always  bathed 
together  promiscuously  in  the  thermae,  or  that  the  women 
were  excluded  altogether  from  these  establishments. 

It  remains  to  explain  the  manner  in  which  the  im- 
mense body  of  water  required  for  the  supply  of  a  set  of 
baths  in  the  thermae  was  heated.  This  has  been  done  very 
satisfactorily  by  Piranesi  and  Cameron,  as  may  be  seen  by 
a  reference  to  the  two  sectional  elevations  showing  the 
reservoir  and  aqueducts  belonging  to  the  Thermae  of 
Caracalla.  A  are  arches  of  the  aqueduct  which  conveyed 
the  water  into  the  reservoir,  B,  whence  it  flowed  into  the 
upper  range  of  cells  through  the  aperture  at  C,  and  thence 
again  descended  into  the  lower  ones  by  the  aperture,  D, 
which  were  placed  immediately  over  the  hypocaust,  E,  the 
furnace  of  which  can  be  seen  in  the  transverse  section  at 
F.  There  were  thirty-two  of  these  cells  arranged  in  two 
rows  over  the  hypocaust,  sixteen  on  each  side,  and  all 
communicating  with  one  another,  and  over  these  a  similar 
number  similarly  arranged,  which  communicated  with 
those  below  by  the  aperture  at  D.  The  parting  walls  be- 
tween these  cells  were  likewise  perforated  with  flues  which 
served  to  disseminate  the  heat  all  around  the  whole  body 
of  water.     When  the  water  was  sufficiently  warm  it  was 


niiii  li'  Hi  ^i'  'iiriiPejiBa, 


Sectional  Elevation,  Thermae  of  Titus,  Rome.    (Restored  by  Leclerc.) 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


61 


turned  on  to  the  baths  through  pipes  conducted  likewise 
through  flues  in  order  to  prevent  the  loss  of  temperature 
during  passage,  and  the  lower  reservoir  was  supplied  as 
fast  as  water  was  drawn  off  from  the  reservoir  next  above, 


fe; 

HE 

"^^ 

t^-^-^^ 

™ 

^si 

'S 

A 

m^ii     ail 

ip^ 

^^ 

f 

mw^^. 

Frigidarium,  Thermse  of  Caracalla,  Rome.    (Restored  by  VioUet-le-Duc) 

which  in  turn  was  supplied  with  water  from  the  topmost 
tier  and  the  aqueduct. 

Perhaps  a  better  idea  of  the  thermae  can  be  had  by  an 
examination  of  the  plan  of  the  Thermae  of  Titus,.  Rome, 
restored  by  Leclerc,  also  the  sectional  elevation  and  front 
elevation  of  the  same  bath,  restored  by  the  same  artist. 
The  original  drawings,  which  won  the  Grand  Prix  de  Rome, 
are  preserved  in  the  library  of  the  Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts, 
Paris.  A  restoration  by  Viollet-le-Duc,  which  appeared 
with  the  other  restorations  in  the  June,  1906,  number  of  the 
Architectural  Record,  conveys  a  very  good  idea  of  the  inte- 
rior of  a  frigidarium. 


IXFERIOR- VIFU-Or  -AQ\rj>V(  T  - 

-    l  lSl\ON    •    I'ORTN  G  \L    - 


Synopsis  of  Chapter.  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire— Succeeding  Period 
known  as  the  Dark  Ages — Sanitation  during  the  Dark  Ages — Beginning  of  Material 
Progress  in  Sanitation — Pilgrimages  to  Juggernaut — Water  Supply  to  Paris — Lon- 
don Water  Supply — Aqueduct  of  Zempoala,  Mexico. 


DURING  the  period  following  the  fall  of  Rome,  the 
empire  was  overrun  by  barbarians  from  the  north,  and 
the  magnificent  baths,  aqueducts  and  public  edifices 
reared  by  the  Romans  with  such  painstaking  care  were 
suffered  to  fall  into  decay.  So  little  in  sympathy  were  the 
barbarians  with  the  people  they  conquered  and  their  insti- 
tutions, that  in  time  the  inhabitants  of  many  localities  even 
forgot  the  uses  to  which  the  old  works  had  been  put ;  and 
had  it  not  been  for  the  Popes  the  supply  of  water  to  the 
city  of  Rome  would  have  been  cut  off  completely,  while 
as  it  was  the  service  was  frequently  interrupted. 

Following  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  there  was  a 
period  of  over  one  thousand  years  of  intellectual  darkness, 
during  which  no  material  progress  was  made ;  indeed, 
instead  of  progress  a  retrograde  movement  set  in  which 
left  a  lasting  impression  on  the  times.  The  little  spark  of 
knowledge  that  survived  this  period  burned  in  the  monas- 
teries of  the  monks,  who  treasured  and  kept  alive  the  spark 
of  civilization. 

The  Dark  Ages,  as  this  period  is  called,  if  lacking  in 
progress,  were  replete  with  adventure.  During  this  period, 
which  might  equally  well  be  called  the  Age  of  Romance, 
there  sprung  up  a  brotherhood  of  men  noted  for  skill  in 
combat,  who  were  dubbed  knights.     There  also  spread  a 

63 


64 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


creed  about  that  time  that  uncleanliness  was  next  to  godli- 
ness, and  clergy  and  laymen  vied  with  each  other  to  see 
which  could  live  in  the  most  filthy  manner.  They  asso- 
ciated in  there  minds  luxury  and  cleanliness  as  inconsistent 
with  godliness,  while  squalor  and  bodily  filth  were  consid- 
ered as  outward  indi- 
cations of  inward  piety 
and  sanctification.  So 
it  came  to  pass  that 
bathing,  instead  of  a 
daily  practice,  became 
uncommon ;  homes  and 
inhabitants  became  fil- 
thy and  streams  pol- 
luted. Such  violations 
of  sanitary  principles 
could  not  continue  in- 
definitely without  evil 
results,  and  scourge  af- 
ter scourge  of  filth  dis- 
eases that  swept  over 
Europe  and  Asia,  claim- 
ing over  40,000,000 
victims,  were  due  to 
the  unsanitary  con- 
dition that  prevailed. 
The  restless,  seething,  venturesome  spirit  of  the  times 
and  the  emotional  zeal  displayed  in  religious  matters  con- 
tributed greatly  to  the  spread  of  pestilence.  The  crusades, 
starting  out  with  a  romantic  and  religious  fervor,  but  with 
no  set  rules  of  conduct  for  guidance,  and  lacking  a  leader 
strong  enough  in  discipline  to  hold  in  check  men  whose 
only  claim  to  distinction  lay  in  their  powers  in  a  tilt  and 
their  love  of  battle,  soon  degenerated  into  the  most  dis- 
orderly and  lewd  of  rabble.  Women  camp-followers  joined 
their  fortunes  with  that  of  the  knights,  who  in  most  cases 
forgot  the  object  of  the  crusade,  and  gave  themselves  up  to 
indolence    and    debauchery.       Sanitary   precautions    were 


Destroyed  Lead  Font,  Great  Plumstead,  Norfolk 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


65 


dispensed  with  on  the  march,  and  the  result  was  that 
wherever  the  crusaders  went  they  left  sickness  and  pesti- 
lence in  their  wake. 

Pilgrimages  to  the  holy  shrines,  which  drew  together 
thousands  of  human  beings  without  adequate  shelter  or 
food,  also  served  to  spread  contagious  diseases  throughout 
the  land.  Perhaps  the  best  picture  of  a  pilgrimage  which, 
while  of  a  latter  date,  will  still  serve  to  show  the  unsani- 
tary conditions  when  thousands  of  people  are  brought 
together  without  food  or  shelter,  can  be  had  from  a  report 
of  Dr.  Simmons,  of  the  Yokahama  Board  of  Health.  In 
speaking  of  a  latter-day  pilgrimage  in  India,  he  says: 
"The  drinking-water  supply  is  derived  from  wells, 
so-called  'tanks'  or  artificial  ponds  and  the  water  courses  of 
the  country.  The  wells  generally  resemble  those  of  other 
parts  of  Asia.  The  tanks  are  excavations  made  for  the  pur- 
pose of  collecting  the  surface  water  during  the  rainy  season 
and  storing  it  up  for 
the  dry.  Necessarily 
they  are  mere  stagnant 
pools.  The  water  is 
used  not  only  to  quench 
thirst,  but  is  said  to  be 
drunk  as  a  sacred  duty. 
At  the  same  time,  the 
reservoir  serves  as  a 
large  washing  tub  for 
clothes,  no  matter  how 
dirty  or  in  what  soiled 
condition,  and  for  per- 
sonal bathing.  Many 
of  the  watercourses  are 
sacred;  notably  the 
Ganges,  a  river  i,6oo 
miles  long,  in  whose 
waters  it  is  the  religious  duty  of  millions,  not  only  those 
living  near  its  banks,  but  for  pilgrims,  to  bathe  and 
to  cast  their  dead.     The  Hindoo  cannot  be  made  to  use  a 


0^-4  l'"Z 

^^^^^^MiSafct;^ 

WKm 

rm^^^ 

qi^^^^^—\ 

^^^^ 

^ 

Leaden  Cup,  of  the  time  of  Vespasian,  found  in 

Rome.    The' band  was  decorated 

with  colored  glass 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


Lead  Pipehead  and  Pipe 


latrine.  In  the  cities  he  digs  a  hole  in  his  habitation;  in 
the  country  he  seeks  the  fields,  the  hillside,  the  banks  of 
streams   and  rivers   when   obliged   to    obey    the    calls    of 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


67 


nature.  Hence  it  is  that  the  vicinity  of  towns  and  the 
banks  of  the  tanks  and  water  courses  are  reeking  with  filth 
of  the  worst  description,  which  is  of  necessity  washed  into 
the  public  water  supply  with  every  rainfall.  Add  to  this 
the  misery  of  pilgrims,  then  poverty  and  disease  and  the 
terrible  crowdino^  into  the  numerous  towns  which  contain 


Lead  Cistern  with  the  Arms  of  the  Fishmongers'  Company,  in  the  possession 
of  Mr.  Merthyr  Guest 

some  temple  or  shrine,  the  object  of  their  devotion,  and 
we  can  see  how  India  has  become  and  remains  the  hotbed 
of  the  cholera  epidemic."  In  the  United  States  official 
report  the  horrors  incident  upon  the  pilgrimages  are 
detailed  with  appalling  minuteness.  W,  W.  Hunter,  in  his 
"Orissa, "  states  that  twenty-four  high  festivals  take  place 
annually  at  Juggernaut.  At  one  of  them,  about  Easter, 
40,000  persons  indulge  in  hemp  and  hasheesh  to  a  shocking 
degree.  For  weeks  before  the  car  festival,  in  June  and 
July,  pilgrims  come  trooping  in  by  thousands  every  day. 
They  are  fed  by  the  temple  cooks  to  the  number  of  90,000. 


68 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


Over  100,000  men  and  women,  many  of  them  unaccustomed 
to  work  or  exposure,  tug  and  strain  at  the  car  until  they 
drop  exhausted  and  block  the  road  with  their  bodies.  Dur- 
ing every  month  of  the  year  a  stream  of  devotees  flows 
along  the  great  Orissa  road  from  Calcutta,  and  every  village 
for  three  hundred  miles  has  its  pilgrim  encampments. 


Car  of  Juggernaut 

The  people  travel  in  small  bands,  which  at  the  time  of 
the  great  feasts  actually  touch  each  other.  Five-sixths  of 
the  whole  are  females  and  ninety-five  per  cent,  travel  on 
foot,  many  of  them  marching  hundreds  and  even  thousands 
of  miles,  a  contingent  having  been  drummed  up  from  every 
town  or  village  in  India  by  one  or  other  of  the  three  thou- 
sand emissaries  of  the  temple,  who  scour  the  country  in  all 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  69 

directions  in  search  of  dupes.  When  those  pilgrims  who 
have  not  died  on  the  road  arrive  at  their  journey's  end, 
emaciated,  with  feet  bound  up  in  rags  and  plastered  with 
mud  and  dirt,  they  rush  into  the  sacred  tanks  or  the  sea  and 
emerge  to  dress  in  clean  garments.  Disease  and  death 
make  havoc  with  them  during  their  stay;  corpses  are  buried 
in  holes  scooped  in  the  sand,  and  the  hillocks  are  covered 
with  bones  and  skulls  washed  from  their  shallow  graves  by 
the  tropical  rains.  The  temple  kitchen  has  the  monopoly  of 
cooking  for  the  multitude,  and  provides  food  which  if  fresh 
is  not  unwholesome.  Unhappily,  it  is  presented  before 
Juggernaut,  so  becomes  too  sacred  for  the  minutest  portion 
to  be  thrown  away.  Under  the  influence  of  the  heat  it  soon 
undergoes  putrefactive  fermentation,  and  in  forty-eight 
hours  much  of  it  is  a  loathsome  mass,  unfit  for  human  food. 
Yet  it  forms  the  chief  sustenance  of  the  pilgrims,  and  is  the 
sole  nourishment  of  thousands  of  beggars.  Some  one  eats 
it  to  the  very  last  grain.  Injurious  to  the  robust,  it  is 
deadly  to  the  weak  and  wayworn,  at  least  half  of  whom 
reach  the  place  suffering  under  some  form  of  bowel  com- 
plaint. Badly  as  they  are  fed  the  poor  wretches  are  worse 
lodged.  Those  who  have  the  temporary  shelter  of  four  walls 
are  housed  in  hovels  built  upon  mud  platforms  about  four 
feet  high,  in  the  center  of  each  of  which  is  the  hole  which 
receives  the  ordure  of  the  household,  and  around  which  the 
inmates  eat  and  sleep.  The  platforms  are  covered  with 
small  cells  without  any  windows  or  other  apertures  for  ven- 
tilation, and  in  these  caves  the  pilgrims  are  packed,  in  a 
country  where,  during  seven  months  out  of  twelve,  the 
thermometer  marks  from  85  to  100  degrees  Fahr.  Hunter 
says  that  the  scenes  of  agony  and  suffocation  enacted  in  these 
hideous  dens  baffle  description.  In  some  of  the  best  of 
them,  13  feet  long  by  lo  feet  broad  and  6%  feet  high,  as 
many  as  eighty  persons  pass  the  night.  It  is  not  then 
surprising  to  learn  that  the  stench  is  overpowering  and  the 
heat  like  that  of  an  oven.  Of  300,000  who  visit  Juggernaut 
in  one  season,  90,000  are  often  packed  together  five  days  a 
week  in  5,000  of  these  lodgings.     In  certain  seasons,  how- 


70 


HISTORY     OF    SANITATION 


Distant  View  of  Zempoala  Aqueduct,  Oueretaro,  Mexico 


ever,  the  devotees  can  and  do  sleep  in  the  open  air,  camp- 
ing out  in  regiments  and  battalions,  covered  only  with  the 
same  meagre  cotton  garment  that  clothes  them  by  day. 
The  heavy  dews  are  unhealthy  enough,  but  the  great  festi- 
val falls  at  the  beginning  of  the  rains,  when  the  water 
tumbles  in  solid  sheets.  Then  lanes  and  alleys  are  con- 
verted into  torrents  or  stinking  canals,  and  the  pilgrims 
are  driven  into  vile  tenements.  •  Cholera  invariably  breaks 
out.      Living  and  dead  are  huddled  together. 

In  the  numerous  so-called  corpse  fields  around  the 
town  as  many  as  forty  or  fifty  corpses  are  seen  at  a  time, 
and  vultures  sit  and  dogs  lounge  lazily  about  gorged  with 
human  flesh.  In  fact,  there  is  no  end  to  the  recurrence  of 
incidents  of  misery  and  humiliation,  the  horrors  of  which, 
says  the  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  are  unutterable,  but  which  are 
eclipsed  by  those  of  the  return  journey.  Plundered  and 
fleeced  by  landlords,  the  surviving  victims  reel  homeward 
staggering  under  their  burden  of  putrid  food  wrapped  up 
in  dirty  clothes,  or  packed  in  heavy  baskets  or  earthenware 
jars.  Every  stream  is  flooded,  and  the  travelers  have  often 
to  sit  for  days  in  the  rain  on  the  banks  of  a  river  before  a 
boat  will  venture  to  cross.     At  all  these  points  the  corpses 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  71 

lie  thickly  strewn  around  (an  English  traveler  counted 
forty  close  to  one  ferry),  which  accounts  for  the  prevalence 
of  cholera  on  the  banks  of  brooks,  streams  and  rivers. 
Some  poor  creatures  drop  and  die  by  the  way ;  others  crowd 
into  the  villages  and  halting  places  on  the  way,  where  those 
who  gain  admittance  cram  the  lodging-places  to  overflow- 
ing, and  thousands  pass  the  night  in  the  streets,  and  find 
no  cover  from  the  drenching  storms.  Groups  are  huddled 
under  the  trees ;  long  lines  are  stretched  among  the  carts 
and  bullocks  on  the  roadside,  then  half  saturated  with  the 
mud  on  which  they  lie,  hundreds  sit  on  the  wet  grass,  not 
daring  to  lie  down,  and  rock  themselves  to  a  monotonous 
chant  through  the  long  hours  of  the  dreary  night.  It  is 
impossible  to  compute  the  slaughter  of  this  one  pilgrimage. 
Bishop  Wilson  estimates  it  at  not  less  than  50,000,  and 
this  description  might  be  used  for  all  the  great  India  pil- 
grimages, of  which  there  are  probably  a  dozen  annuall}", 
to  say  nothing  of  the  hundreds  of  smaller  shrines  scattered 
through  the  peninsula,  each  of  which  attracts  its  minor 
horde  of  credulous  votaries. 

Such  then  may  be  accepted  as  a  picture  of  one  of  the 
nvimerous  pil- 
grimages made 
during  the  Dark 
Ages  and  which 
helped  to  spread 
infectious  dis- 
eases broadcast 
throughout  the 
land,  polluting 
water  supplies  to 
such      an     extent 

fha-f-     in     t-norwr    In  Near  View  of  Zempoala  Aqueduct,  Mexico 

calities  filth  diseases  became  epidemic.  It  was  not  until 
about  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  that  general 
improvement  began  to  be  made  in  sanitary  matters, 
although  some  notable  exceptions  may  be  mentioned 
in   the   construction   of   a   few   important  works  in   Spain 


73 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


Zempoala  Aqueduct.    From  an  old  print  in  the  Engineering  Neivs 

by  the  Moors,  such  for  instance  as  those  at  Cordova 
in  the  ninth  century  and  the  repair  of  the  Roman  aque- 
duct at  Sevilla  in  1172.  Until  as  late  a  date  as  1183  Paris 
depended  entirely  on  the  River  Seine  for  its  water  supply. 
During-  that  year  an  aqueduct  was  constructed  to  conduct 
water  to  Paris  from  a  distant  source,  but  as  late  as  the  year 
1550  the  supply  of  water  to  Paris  amounted  to  only  one 
quart  per  capita  per  day. 

London,  England,  was  more  backward  than  Paris  in 
supplying  the  inhabitants  with  water,  and  it  was  not  until 
the  year  1235  that  small  quantities  of  spring  water  were 
brought  to  the  city  through  lead  pipes  and  masonry 
conduits. 

Little  is  known  about  the  strange  race  of  people  that 
inhabited  the  North  American  continent  prior  to  the 
Indians,  and  it  is  only  by  the  ruins  of  works  which 
they  constructed  in  the  shape  of  mounds  that  their 
existence    is   known   of.    Nevertheless,  had   historians   of 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  73 

that  time  written  of  the  engineering  projects  success- 
fully carried  out  by  the  engineers  of  the  mound  builders  no 
doubt  some  surprising  facts  would  be  revealed  to  contem- 
porary man;  for  wherever  men  have  existed,  whether  in 
China,  Japan,  Egypt,  Europe,  England  or,  as  we  are 
informed  by  astronomers,  on  Mars,  gigantic  works  of 
irrigation  have  been  successfully  undertaken,  and  in  most 
of  the  places  mentioned  conduits  or  aqueducts  to  supply 
water  to  inhabitants  of  communities  were  constructed. 
Reasoning  then  by  analogy  it  would  be  safe  to  infer  that 
before  the  race  of  mound  builders  became  extinct  they 
built  works  of  equal  importance  if  not  of  equal  endurance. 
This  belief  is  borne  out  by  the  fact  that  long  before  Colum- 
bus discovered  America,  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico  built  an 
aqueduct  to  supply  the  ancient  city,  built  on  the  site  of  the 
present  City  of  Mexico.  How  long  the  aqueduct  supplied 
the  city  before  Cortez,  in  his  expedition  to  conquer  Mexico, 
destroyed  the  works,  in  1521,  nobody  knows  and  the  truth 
will  probably  never  be  told.  The  fact  of  the  existence  of 
such  a  structure  is  interesting  chiefly  as  showing  that  in  the 
matter  of  supplying  communities  with  water  the  ancient 
tribes  of  Mexico  and  America  had  made  considerable  pro- 
gress long  before  Europeans  set  foot  on  shore.  It  was  in 
Mexico,  too,  that  the  next  aqueduct  in  point  of  time  was 
constructed.  This  work  was  built  during  the  period  be- 
tween the  years  1553  and  1570,  under  the  supervision  of 
Friar  Francisco  Tembleque,  a  Franciscan  monk,  and  served 
for  about  two  centuries  to  carry  water  from  the  mountain 
Lacayete  to  the  city  of  Otumba,  state  of  Hidalgo,  district 
of  Apan,   a  distance  of  27.8  miles. 

The  aqueduct,  which  is  known  as  the  Zempoala,  in- 
cluded three  arched  bridges  of  a  maximum  height  of  124 
feet.  This  aqueduct  is  further  interesting  from  the  fact 
that  the  original  agreement,  under  which  the  work  was 
performed,  is  still  in  existence,  a  copy  of  which  was  pub- 
lished in  the  Engineering  Nezus^  1888,  from  which  the 
following  copy  is  taken. 

The  first  bridge  contains  forty-six  arches,  the  second 


74  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

thirteen  arches  and  the  third  sixty-eight  arches.  The 
length  of  the  longest  bridge  is  3,000  feet  and  the  span  of 
the  arches  at  the  springing  line  is  fifty-six  feet.  About 
five  years  were  required  to  build  the  principal  part  of  the 
aqueduct  which  is  carried  on  arches. 

Contract  Under  Which  Aqueduct  was  Built 

I,  Friar  Cristobal  y  Chanriguis,  preacher  and  secretary  of  this  holy 
province  of  the  holy  evangel,  certify  that  Father  Luis  Gerro,  preacher 
and  guardian  of  the  Convent  of  All  Saints,  Zempoala,  has  presented 
to  me  a  patent  in  favor  of  natives  of  said  town,  whose  legal  tenor  is  as 
follows : 

We,  Friar  Juan  De  Bustamanti,  Commissioner  General  of  the 
Indes  of  the  Ocean  Seas,  and  Friar  Juan  De  San  Francisco,  Provincial 
Master  of  the  province  of  said  holy  evangel,  and  Friar  Deigo  Nolivarte, 
and  Friar  Juan  De  Gavna,  and  Friar  Antonio  Centad  Rodriquez,  and 
Friar  Bernardino  De  Sahagun,  subordinate  of  priests  of  said  province  of 
the  holy  evangel,  declare: 

That  inasmuch  as  you,  the  Governor  Alcaldes  and  principal  officers 
of  the  town  of  Zacoala,  have  agreed,  for  the  love  of  God  and  because  of 
our  intercession,  with  the  same  officers  of  the  town  of  Otumba  to  give 
to  them  half  the  water  which  you  have  in  your  town  of  Zacoala  for  the 
use  and  benefit  of  the  inhabitants  of  Otumba  and  for  the  use  of  the 
monastery  of  our  order  founded  in  that  town,  in  which  you  do  great  good 
to  them  and  to  our  said  monastery,  because  of  our  intercession  as 
stated;  and,  inasmuch,  moreover,  as  you,  the  said  people  of  Zacoala, 
with  much  labor  and  for  the  good  of  your  souls,  agree  to  join  with  the 
people  of  the  Flaquilpan  and  Zempoala  in  the  place  where  you  are 
erecting  an  All  Saints  Monastery,  at  which  point  you  agree  to  remain 
and  work  and  not  to  depart  for  the  reason  that  you  are  removed  from 
your  own  houses ;  on  order  to  labor  for  the  good  of  our  souls  and  in 
return  for  the  labor  which  the  priests  have  in  visiting  you.  And 
whereas  now  you  will  soon  have  together  a  monastery  for  the  friars  of 
our  order,  in  which  must  be  administered  for  all  the  holy  sacraments ; 
therefore,  in  return  for  this  benefit  and  work  we  promise  you  that  in  all 
our  time  we  will  not  cease  to  give  friars  for  said  monastery,  and  for  the 
whole  length  of  our  lives  we  will  aid  you  in  your  prayers  in  all  the 
agreed  respects;  and  for  the  time  to  come  after  our  lives,  in  considera- 
tion of  said  benefit,  we  will  petition  the  said  Commissioners  General 
and  Provisional  Masters  that  they  will  severally  and  collectively  adhere 
to  the  agreement,  and  always  have  the  charity  to  furnish  friars  in  the 
Monastery  of  All  Saints,  as  now  in  view  of  the  great  and  good  work 
which  you  have  done  through  our  intercession,  both  in  giving  the 
said  water  and  in  aiding  the  said  work  to  supply  it.     And  if  by  chance 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


75 


there  should  happen  to  be  so  few  priests  that  it  is  impossible  to  spare 
them  from  the  house  of  Otumba  that  they  shall  place  friars  in  said 
Monastery  of  All  Saints  first  and  let  the  loss  fall  upon  other  places  than 
Zacoala  and  the  Monastery  of  All  Saints,  in  all  of  which  places  you  are 
entitled  to  be  taught  by  our  priests. 

We  will  beg  of  our  successors  in  charity  to  favor  us  in  these  said 
respects,  in  return  for  your  faithful  labor  and  agreement  in  our  behalf, 
and  so  we  sign  this  agreement,  made  this  seventh  day  of  February,  1553. 

Then  followed  signatures. 


^3!!r 


From  Stereograph,  copyright   1908  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y.  (See  page  iv) 


Synopsis  of  Chapter.  Introduction  of  Pumping  Machinery  into  Water- 
works Practice— The  Archimedes  Screw— Use  of  Pumps  in  Hanover,  Germany — 
First  London  Pump  on  London  Bridge — Savery  and  Newcomen's  Pumping  Engine 
— The  Hydraulic  Ram— Pumping  Engines  Erected  for  the  Philadelphia  Waterworks 
— Pipes  for  Distributing  Water — Hydrants  and  Valves  for  Wooden  Pipes — Data 
regarding  the  Use  of  Wooden  Pipes — Modern  Pumping  Engines. 

WATER  wheels  for  raising  water  were  in  use  at  such 
an  early  period  that  the  exact  date  of  their  inven- 
tion will  never  be  known.  The  earliest  known  or 
approximate  date  for  the  invention  of  a  water-raising  ma- 
chine extends  back  to  about  215  years  before  the  birth  of 
Christ,  when  Archimedes, 
the  Greek  mathematician, 
who  was  killed  at  the  taking 
of  Syracuse  by  the  Romans, 
invented  the  Archimedes 
screw.  This  apparatus,  un- 
like pumps  of  later  date, 
was  operated  indepen- 
dently of  the  atmospheric 
pressure,  and  by  using  a 
number  of  the  screws  in 
series,  water  could  be  raised 
to  any  desired  height. 

The  Archimedes  screw 
was  not  adapted  for  rais- 
ing large  quantities  of 
water,  however,  so  that 
Greek  and  Roman  cities 
never  v/ere   supplied   with 


Savery's  Engine 


77 


78 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


water  by  means  of  engines.  It  remained  for  Hanover, 
Germany,  to  install  the  first  pump  of  which  we  have 
knowledge,  for  supplying  a  town  or  city  with  water.  In 
Germany,  waterworks  were  constructed  as  early  as  1412, 
and  pumps  were  introduced  in  Hanover  in  the  year  1527. 
In  London,  England,  the  first  pump  was  erected  on 
the  old  London  Bridge  in  1582,  for  the  purpose  of  supplying 
the  city  with  water  from  the  Thames  and  distributing  it 
through  lead  pipes.  There  are  only  meagre  accounts  of  the 
Hanover  and  London  Bridge  pumps  to  be  had,  however, 
and  no  illustrations  showing  their  construction. 

The  oldest  known  print  of  a  steam  engine  is  in  the 
Birmingham  public  library,*  and  shows  a  machine  built  in 
1 7 12  by  Savery  and  Newcomen.  A  search  made  by  The 
Engineer  of  London,  has  brought  to  light  an  old  engraving 

dated  1725,  and  entitled 
' '  The  Engine  for  Raising 
Water  by  Fire."  It  is 
unique  in  containing  the 
first  illustrated  description 
of  a  steam  engine.  This 
machine  is  somewhat  dif- 
ferent fjTom  that  portrayed 
in  earlier  engravings,  for 
the  boiler  is  fed  with  a 
portion  of  the  hot  water 
coming'  from  the  bottom 
of  the  cylinder  or  hot  well. 
This  fixes  the  date  of  the 
improvement  described 
by  Desagaliers  in  his  Ex- 
perimental Philosophy  as  follows:  "It  had  been  found  of 
benefit  to  feed  the  boiler  warm  water  coming  from  the  top 
of  the  piston,  rather  than  cold  water,  which  would  too 
much  check  the  boiling  and  cause  more  force  to  be  needful. 
But  after  the  engine  had  been  placed  some  years,  some 
persons   concerned   about   an   engine,   observing  that  the 

*  Engi7ieering  Record.,  Oct.  21,  1905 


Newcomen's  Engine 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


79 


injected  water  as  it  came  out  of  the  induction  pipe  was 
scalding  hot,  when  the  water  coming  from  the  top  of  the 
piston  was  but  just  lukewarm,  thought  it  would  be  of  great 
advantage  to  feed  from   the  induction  or  injected  water, 


Section  Through  the  Engine  House  of  the  Centre  Square  Water  Works,  Philadelphia 

and   accordingly  did  it,   which  gave   a   stroke    or    two    of 
advantage  to  the  engine." 

At  about  this  time  or  late  in  1700,  a  Frenchman,  Mont- 
golfer,  invented  the  hydraulic  ram.  This  machine,  while 
simple  in  construction,  is  one  of  the  most  efficient  water- 


80 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


raising-  devices  made,  and  in  the  later  improved  designs 
amount  actually  to  hydraulic  engines.  That  pumping  en- 
gines of  this  period  and  steam  boilers  to  operate  them 
were  of  crude  design  there  can  be  no  doubt,  indeed,  many 
years  later,  in  1800,  when  waterworks  and  a  pumping  sta- 
tion were  introduced  in  Philadelphia,  the  pumps  and 
boilers  were  of  the  crudest  design.  A  sectional  illustration 
of  the  pumping  house,  taken  from  Volume  17  of  Engineer- 
ing News^  conveys  a  fair  idea  of  the  design  of  the  pumps. 
The  engine  was  built  mostly  of  wood  and  had  cylinders  6 
feet  long  by  38^  inches  inside  diameter.  A  double  acting 
pump  had  a  cylinder  of  18^  inches  diameter  and  6-foot 
stroke.  In  these  engines  the  lever  arms,  flywheel  shaft 
and  arms,  flywheel  bearings,  the  hot  well,  hot  and  cold  water 
pumps,  cold  water  cistern,  and  even  the  external  shell  of 
the  boilers  were  made  of  wood.  The  boilers  were  rectan- 
gular chests,  made  of  5 -inch  white  pine  planks  of  the 
general  dimensions  shown  in  the  illustration.  They  were 
braced  on  the  sides,  top  and  bottom  with  white  oak  scant- 
ling, 10  inches  square,  all  bolted  together  with  i^-inch 
iron  rods  passing  through  the  planks.  Inside  the  chest 
was  an  iron  fire-box,  12  feet  6  inches  long  by  6  feet  wide 
and  I  foot  10  inches  deep,  and  8  vertical  flues,  6  of  15 
inches  and  2  of  12  inches  diameter,  through  which  the 
water  circulated,  the  fire  acting  around  them  and  passing 
up  an  oval  flue  situated  just  above  the  fire  box  and  carried 
from  the  back  of  the  boiler  to  near  the  front  and  then 
returned  to  the  chimney  at  the  back. 

These  wooden  boilers  were  used  at  the  Centre  Street 
waterworks  from  1801  to  18 15,  but  did  not  give  general 


Wooden  Boilers  used  in  the  Philadelphia  Water  Supply 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


81 


satisfaction  on  account  of  the  numerous  leaks.  They  were 
operated  at  very  low  pressure,  averaging  not  over  2^ 
pounds  per  square  inch,  but  even  at  this  extremely  low 
pressure  were  found  unsatisfactory. 

During  the  early  days  of  water  supply,  following  the 
period  of  aqueducts,  lead  was  the  material  commonly  used 
for  water  supply  mains.  Later,  however,  pipes  made  of 
bored-out  logs  were  used  and  continued  in  service  up  to 
the  year  1819.  The  water  mains  used  in  Philadelphia 
were  made  of  spruce  logs,  reinforced  at  the  ends  with 
wrought-iron  bands.  A  section  of  one  of  these  old  Phila- 
delphia water  mains,  which  is  still  in  a  good  state  of 
preservation,  is  on  exhibition  in  the  Builders'  Exchange 
of  that  city. 

So  far  as  is  known,  Philadelphia  was  the  first  city  in 
the  world  to  adopt  cast  iron  pipe  for  water  mains.  Cast 
iron  water  pipes 

were  laid  in  Phil-  '  ' 

adelphia  in  the 
year  1804,  ante- 
dating their  use 
in  London,  Eng- 
land, by  a  few 
years. 

The  durabil- 
ity of  wood  pipe 
is  rather  aston- 
ishing when  the 
short  life  of  logs 
exposed  on  the 
surface  of  the 
earth  is  consid- 
ered. After  lying 
buried  in  the 
earth  for  fifty  or 
sixty  years  the  wood  pipe  used  in  the  Philadelphia  water- 
works was  sold  to  Burlington,  N.  J.,  in  1804,  and  remained 
in  constant  use  there  until  1887,  when  larger  mains  were 
required. 


Section  of  Bored-out  Log  Laid  in  Victoria,  B.  C. 
1863  and  taken  out  1900 


83 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


Portsmouth,   N.    H.,   used  "bored  pine  logs  for  mains 
from  1798  to  1896,  when  they  were  replaced  with  larger 


Valve  for  Wooden  Pipes  Used  in  the  Philadelphia  Water  Supply 

pipes.     When  dug  up,  the  logs  were  entirely  sound   and 
good  for  many  years'  service. 

A  few  data  regarding  the  use  of  wooden 
pipes  might  not  be  without  interest,  while  at  the 
same  time  pointing  out  the  approximate  dates 
when  waterworks  were  constructed  in  several 
cities.  Log  pipes  laid  in  Victoria,  B.  C,  in  1862 
and  taken  out  in  1900  were  quite  free  from  decay 
but  badly  checked. 

Constantinople  still  receives  part  of  its  sup- 
■J"      ply  through  wood  pipe. 

London  had  400  miles  of  wood  pipe  in  use 
for  218  years,  from  1589  to  1807.  When  taken 
up  it  was  found  to  be  quite  sound. 

Boston  used  one  system  of  wood  pipes  from 
1652  to  1796,  then  replaced  it  with  another  one 
which  lasted  until  1848. 

Denver,   Colorado,  has  nearly   100  miles  of 

stave  pipe  conduit  and  mains  in  use.     All  the 

water  brought  to  Denver  for  domestic  use  passes 

■^■^  through   wooden    pipe    37    inches    in    diameter, 

^^oodln""^  which  conducts  it  from  Cherry  Creek,  which  is 

^*m\he^'^    about  8  milcs  from  center  of  city. 

water^s^up-  The  hydrants  and  valves  used  in  connection 

P^^         with  wood  pipes  in  Philadelphia  were  made  of 

metal,  and  it  is  presumed  that  the  valves  and  hydrants 

used  in  other  cities  were  likewise  made  of  metal. 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


83 


Only  one  brief  century  has  passed  since  waterworks 
pumping  stations  were  introduced  in  the  United  States, 
but  what  wonderful  improvements  have  been  made  in 
pumping  machinery  design  within  that  short  space  of  time ! 
Steel  and  iron  have  taken  the  place  of  wood  in  the  manu- 
facture of  boilers  and  pumps,  and  instead  of  the  leaky, 
unsatisfactory  apparatus  of  other  days,  even  when  working 
under  low  pressures,  we  now  have  pumping  engines  which 
will  work  continuously  month  after  month  under  several 
hundred  pounds  pressure,  and  deliver  the  daily  volumes  of 
from  a  few  hundred  to  many  million  gallons  of  water. 


Modern  Vertical  Triple-Expansion  Pumping  Engine 


Synopsis  of  Chapter.  Early  British  Sewers— Sewer  in  the  Great  Hall  of 
"Westminster— Shape  of  Early  English  Sewers— Adoption  or  Recommendation  of 
Pipe  Sewers— Early  Paris  Sewers— Paris  Sewers  of  To-day— Lack  of  Sewage  Data 
in  America— Effect  of  Memphis  Epidemics  on  Sanitary  Progress. 

THE  earliest  mention  we  have  of  English  sewers  is 
contained  in  an  old  record  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
which  informs  us  "  The  refuse  from  the  king's  kitchen 
had  long  run  through  the  Great  Hall  in  an  open  channel,  to 
the  serious  injury  to  health  and  danger  to  life  of  those  con- 
gregated at  court.  It  was  therefore  ordered  that  a  subter- 
raneous conduit  should  be  made  to  carry  away  the  filth  into 
the  Thames."  This  description  of  the  sewer  from  the 
Great  Hall  presents  a  vivid  picture  of  the  sewers  of  that 
day.  At  first  the  main  sewers  were  natural  water  courses 
which,  having  become  offensive,  were  arched  over  to  shut 
out  the  sight  and  odor.  Street  gutters  leading  to  those 
arched-over  water  courses  became  foul  in  turn,  and  were 
replaced  by  underground  channels  of  the  roughest  brick- 
work or  masonry.  These  drains  which  were  square  in 
cross  section  received  and  carried  off  slop  water  and  rain 
water  from  the  streets ;  the  drains  were  constructed  accord- 
ing to  no  regular  design  nor  fixed  principles,  although 
usually  they  were  12  inches  square  and  made  by  laying  flat 
stones  to  form  the  bottom  of  the  drain,  then  building  walls 
of  brick  and  topping  off  with  flat  stones,  spanning  from 
wall  to  wall.  Excreta  were  collected  in  cesspools  often 
built  beneath  the  floor  of  the  house.  The  introduction  of 
the  water  closet  about  the  commencement  of  the  century, 
though  it  abated  the  nuisance  of  the  latrine,   aggravated 


85 


86  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

the  evils  of  the  cesspool  by  introducing  a  large  volume  of 
water  far  exceeding  in  weight  the  actual  excreta,  water- 
logging the  subsoil.  The  difficulty  and  expense  of  empty- 
ing the  cesspools  were  increased.  Cesspools  were  therefore 
connected  to  sewers  by  house  drains.  The  channels  in- 
tended to  carry  off  rain  water  became  sewers.  "Sewers 
and  house  drains  were  constructed  on  no  scientific  princi- 
ple.* The  walls  were  rough,  irregular  and  porous.  Natu- 
rally deposits  took  place  in  them ;  hand  cleaning  was  con- 
sidered a  normal  incident  to  the  history  of  the  sewer,  and 
irrespective  of  the  volume  of  sewage  to  be  conveyed, 
sewers  were  made  large  enough  to  admit  the  passage  of  a 
man  to  facilitate  cleaning." 

In  1852,  the  General  Board  of  Health  under  the  Public 
Health  Act,  made  their  first  report  to  the  British  Parlia- 
ment, and  advocated  very  strongly  the  introduction  of 
smaller  pipes  in  lieu  of  the  large  brick  and  stone  drains 
then  in  use  for  house  drainage.  Prior  to  this  date,  the 
first  report  of  the  Metropolitan  Sanitary  Commission,  Lon- 
don, appeared,  which,  while  not  to  be  taken  as  advocating 
exclusively  the  use  of  small  pipes,  yet  pointed  out  the 
necessity  of  reducing  the  dimensions  and  altering  the 
shapes  of  the  old  stone  and  brick  structures.  From  this 
period,  then,  can  be  assumed  the  adoption  and  first  use  of 
earthenware  pipes  for  house  drains  and  public  sewers. 

The  construction  of  sewers  in  Paris  dates  from  1663, 
but  the  earliest  of  those  still  in  use  are  not  earlier  than  the 
beginning  of  this  century.  Before  the  great  epidemic  of 
cholera  in  1832,  the  total  length  of  sewers  was  not  more 
than  21  miles.  The  sewers  of  Paris  to-day  aggregate  over 
750  miles  in  length,  and  constitute  one  of  the  sights  of  the 
city.  According  to  Mason, f  "They  may  be  inspected 
without  charge  on  the  first  and  third  Wednesdays  of  each 
month  in  summer,  by  writing  for  a  permit  to  the  Prefect 
de  la  Seine.  Descent  is  commonly  made  near  the  Made- 
leine  by  a  substantial    stairway  of   stone,   and   the   boats 

*  Wanklyn  and  Cooper. 
tWater  Supply. 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  87 

awaiting  the  party  at  the  foot  of  the  steps  are  fully  as 
large  and  quite  as  comfortable  as  Venetian  gondolas. 

The  great  sewer,  which  is  tunnel-like  in  dimensions, 
being  i6  feet  high  and  i8  feet  broad,  is,  on  occasions  of  a 
visit,  lighted  with  lamps  alternately  red  and  blue,  and  as 
these  stretch  away  into  the  distance  the  effect  is  decidedly 
striking. 

Under  ordinary  circumstances,  the  sewage  confines 
itself  to  the  center  channel,  but  upon  occasions  rises  above 
the  sidewalk  on  either  hand.  The  central  channel  is  about 
lo  feet  wide  and  4  feet  deep  with  a  curved  bottom,  and  a 
walk  on  either  side.  The  boats  with  their  loads  of  visitors 
are  pulled  by  ropes  in  the  hands  of  attendants  who  walk 
along  the  sidewalks.  On  either  side  of  the  sewer  may  be 
seen  the  large  mains,  carrying  the  city  water  supply,  also 
the  telegraph  cables." 

Reliable  data  concerning  the  construction  of  sewers 
were  not  obtainable  in  the  United  States  until  long  after 
the  close  of  the  Civil  War.  In  1857,  when  Julius  W.  Adams 
was  commissioned  to  prepare  plans  for  sewering  the  city 
of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. ,  which  at  that  time  covered  an  area  of 
20  square  miles,  a  great  proportion  of  which  was  suburban 
territory,  the  engineering  profession  was  wholly  without 
data  of  any  kind  to  guide  in  proportioning  sewers  for  the 
drainage  of  cities  and  towns.  The  half  century  interven- 
ing since  that  time,  however,  has  seen  the  development  of 
sanitary  engineering  and  witnessed  the  installation  of  sewer 
system,  rightly  proportioned  and  properly  designed,  in 
almost  every  city,  town  and  village  in  the  United  States, 
while  text  books  on  engineering  contain  all  necessary  data 
for  their  design  and  construction.  It  must  not  be  inferred 
from  the  foregoing  statement  that  sewers  were  unknown 
in  the  United  States  prior  to  the  construction  of  the 
Brooklyn  sewer  system.  There  was  one  in  Boston,  for 
example,  which  dated  from  the  seventeenth  century,  while 
the  first  comprehensive  sewerage  project  was  designed  by 
E.   vS.   Chesbrough,  for  the   city  of  Chicago  in   1855. 

There  was  no  great  activity  in  sewer  building  in  this 


88  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

country  thirty  years  ago.  Up  to  that  time  most  of  the 
cities  were  comparatively  small,  and  no  thought  was  given 
by  the  various  municipalities  to  treating  the  combined 
sewage  as  a  whole.  The  conditions  were  ripe,  however, 
for  some  unusual  event  to  crystallize  public  opinion  and 
focus  attention  on  the  subject,  and  the  event  was  fur- 
nished by  the  city  of  Memphis,  Tennessee.  Ever  since 
1740,  Memphis  had  been  known  as  a  particularly  unhealth- 
ful  city,  where  the  death  rate  was  abnormally  high,  and 
epidemic  after  epidemic  of  cholera,  yellow  fever  and  other 
contagious  diseases  had  scourged  the  inhabitants.  So  com- 
mon had  those  events  become,  that  they  were  accepted  as 
incident  to  living  in  the  locality,  and  were  looked  upon  as 
special  visitations  which  could  not  be  avoided.  Such  was 
the  state  of  affairs  when  an  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  broke 
out  in  1879,  which  caused  a  death  list  of  5,150,  and  was 
followed  the  succeeding  year  by  a  further  death  roll  of  485, 
due  to  the  scourge.  Had  the  disease  been  confined  within 
the  boundaries  of  the  city,  it  is  possible  that  little  would 
have  been  thought  of  the  matter  outside  of  the  state  of 
Tennessee.  However,  refugees,  fleeing  in  all  directions, 
carried  the  dread  disease  with  them,  until  a  strict  quaran- 
tine— a  shotgun  quarantine — confined  the  infection  to  a 
certain  circumscribed  area.  In  the  meantime,  interference 
with  railroad  traffic,  armed  forces  guarding  the  borders  of 
neighboring  states,  together  with  the  fear  of  the  dread 
disease  spreading  all  over  the  country,  brought  Congress 
and  the  public  to  a  realization  of  the  necessity  for  doing 
something  to  stamp  out  the  disease.  The  most  practical 
good  accomplished  by  the  agitation  was  the  organization  of 
a  National  Board  of  Health,  a  committee  from  which  made 
a  thorough  examination  of  the  sanitary  conditions  of  Mem- 
phis. What  the  committee  found  in  the  way  of  filth  was 
almost  beyond  belief.  The  city,  they  found,  was  honey- 
combed with  cesspools  and  privy- vaults.  Many  of  the  cess- 
pools and  privy-vaults  were  under  or  in  the  cellars  of 
houses,  where  they  had  been  filled  with  accumulations  and 
abandoned  to  fester  and  rot.     Filth  was  everywhere — above 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  89 

ground  and  beneath  the  surface,  in  the  house  and  out  of 
doors.  There  was  only  one  thing  to  do — give  the  city  a 
good  cleaning ;  and  that  was  the  only  time  in  history,  per- 
haps, when  pressure  from  the  outside  forced  an  almost 
bankrupt  city  to  observe  the  laws  of  decency  and  sanitation. 

The  various  works  which  had  been  built  up  to  this 
time  to  supply  communities  with  water,  had  for  their  sole 
object  the  providing  of  an  adequate  supply  so  far  as  quan- 
tity is  concerned,  but  gave  little  thought  to  the  quality  of 
the  water,  so  long  as  it  was  clear  and  cold.  The  sewers 
or  drains  on  the  other  hand  were  constructed  solely  to  pre- 
vent a  nuisance  and  with  no  definite  knowledge  that  an 
unclean  environment  and  polluted  water  were  conducive 
to  ill-health,  while  pure  water  and  clean  surroundings  were 
conducive  to  the  public  health. 

Some  events  were  about  to  happen,  however,  which 
would  awaken  the  public  mind  to  the  dangers  of  dirt,  and 
that  would  usher  in  the  present  epoch  of  sanitation. 


From  Stereograph,  copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  N.  Y.  (See  page  iv) 


Synopsis  of  Chapter.  Sanitary  Awakening— Realization  of  the  Danger  of 
Unwholesome  Water— Cholera  in  London  Traced  to  the  Broad  Street  Pump— An 
Historical  Stink. 

TRUTH  is  mighty  and  will  prevail,  but  sometimes  it  is 
centuries  before  its  voice  can  be  heard  and  additional 
centuries  before  its  language  is  understood.  As  early 
as  350  B.  c,  Hippocrates,  the  Father  of  Medicine,  pointed 
out  the  danger  of  unsterilized  water  and  advised  boiling  or 
filtering  a  polluted  water  supply  before  drinking.  He 
further  believed  that  the  consumption  of  swamp  water  in 
the  raw  state  produced  enlargement  of  the  spleen.  Had  his 
warning  been  heeded  the  lives  of  millions  of  people  who 
were  carried  to  untimely  graves  by  the  scourges  of  pesti- 
lence which  swept  over  Europe,  Asia  and  Great  Britain, 
might  have  been  saved.  Some  idea  of  the  ravage  caused 
by  filth  diseases  can  be  gained  by  reviewing  the  mortality 
due  to  cholera  in  London  during  the  epidemics  of  1832, 
1848,  1849,  1853  and  1854. 

On  account  of  its  size  and  lack  of  sanitary  provisions, 
the  London  of  that  period  was  the  kind  of  place  in  which, 
with  our  present  knowledge  of  disease,  we  would  expect  a 
plague  to  reach  its  height.  Prior  to  1700,  the  city  of 
London  had  no  sewers  and  was  without  water  supply, 
except  such  as  was  obtained  from  wells  and  springs  in  the 
neighborhood.  The  subsoil  of  London  we  can  readily 
believe  was  foul  from  cesspool  leachings  and  from  slops 
and  household  refuse  deposited  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  so  that  water  from  the  wells  within  the  city  limits, 
while    cool  perhaps   and    palatable,   could   not   have   been 

91 


92 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


wholesome.  Many  public  wells  with  pumps  had  been 
installed  at  certain  intervals  on  the  public  highways,  and 
an  epidemic  of  cholera  traced  to  one  of  these  wells,  was 
the  means  of  pointing  out  the  danger  to  public  health, 
caused  by  an  infected  water  supply,  and  of  showing  the 


___ — ^  ^•^a      y, y — -'I  r    ^ 


®  ®  Location  of  Pomps. 

•    •  locktiom  of  fatal  cholera  cases 

BOvPNDftRY' OF  EQUAL  DlSTWCeS  BETWegli^ 

8ROAS  SntSET  f\)nP  AMD       — TSfSjSv    '^ 

OTheh  Pumps. 

(.After  TH6  originm.  mapby 
DR.JoMM  Show.) 


channel  by  which  the  infectious  matter  from  people  suffer- 
ing from  intestinal  diseases  was  transmitted  to  healthy 
individuals.  The  story  is  well  told  by  Sedgwick :  *  "  One 
of  the  earliest,  one  of  the  most  famous,  and  one  of  the  most 
instructive  cases  of  the  conveyance  of  disease  by  polluted 
water,  is  that  commonly  known  as  the  epidemic  of  Asiatic 
cholera  connected  with  the  Broad  Street,  London,  well, 
which  occurred  in  1854.  For  its  conspicuously  circum- 
scribed character,  its  violence  and  fatality,  and  especially 

*  Principles  of  Sanitary  Science  and  the  Public  Health. 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  93 

for  the  remarkable  skill,  thoroughness  and  success  with 
which  it  was  investigated,  it  will  long  remain  one  of  the 
classical  instances  of  the  terrible  efficiency  of  polluted 
water  as  a  vehicle  of  disease. 

As  a  monument  of  sanitary  research,  of  medical  and 
engineering  interest  and  of  penetrating  inductive  reason- 
ing, it  deserves  the  inost  careful  study.  No  apology  there- 
fore need  be  made  for  giving  of  it  here  a  somewhat 
extended  account.* 

The  parish  of  St.  James,  London,  occupied  164  acres 
in  1854,  and  contained  36,406  inhabitants  in  185 1.  It  was 
subdivided  into  three  subdistricts,  viz.,  those  of  St.  James 
Square,  Golden  Square  and  Berwick  Street.  As  will  be 
seen  by  the  map,  it  was  situated  near  a  part  of  London 
now  well  known  to  travellers,  not  far  from  the  junction  of 
Regent  and  Oxford  Streets.  It  was  bounded  by  Mayfair 
and  Hanover  Square  on  the  west,  by  All  Souls  and  Maryl- 
bone  on  the  north,  St.  Anne's  and  Soho  on  the  east,  and 
Charing  Cross  and  St.  Martin's-in-the-Fields  on  the  east 
and  south. 

In  the  cholera  epidemics  of  1832,  1848,  1849  ^^^  1^53'  St. 
James'  Parish  suffered  somewhat,  but  on  the  average  decid- 
edly less  than  London  as  a  whole.  In  1854,  however,  the 
reverse  was  the  case.  The  inquiry  committee  estimated 
that  in  this  year  the  fatal  attacks  in  St.  James'  Parish  were 
probably  not  less  than  700,  and  from  this  estimate  com- 
piled a  cholera  death  rate,  during  17  weeks  under  consid- 
eration, of  220  per  10,000  living  in  the  parish,  which  was 
far  above  the  highest  in  any  other  distiict.  In  the  adjoin- 
ing sub-district  of  Hanover  Square  the  ratio  was  9;  and 
in  the  Charing  Cross  district  of  St.  ]\Iartin's-in-the-Fields 
(including  a  hospital)  it  was  S3-  In  1848-1849  the  cholera 
mortality  in  vSt.  James'  Parish  had  been  only  15  per  10,000 
inhabitants. 

Within  the  parish  itself,  the  disease  in  1854  was  very 
unequally  distributed.      In  the  St.   James  Square  district, 

*The  complete  original  report  is  entitled  "Report  on  the  Cholera  Outbreak 
in  the  Parish  f'f  St.  James,  Westminster,  during  the  Autumn  of  ]85t.  Presented 
to  the  Vestry  by  the  Cholera  Inquiry  Committee,  July,  18.55.  London,  J.  Churchill, 
18.5.5." 


94  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

the  cholera  mortality  was  only  i6  per  10,000,  while  in  the 
Golden  Square  district  it  was  217  and  in  the  Berwick 
Street  district  212.  It  was  plain  that  there  had  been  a 
special  cholera  area,  a  localized  circumscribed  district. 
This  was  eventually  minutely  studied  in  the  most  pains- 
taking fashion  as  to  population,  industries,  previous  sani- 
tary history,  meteorological  conditions  and  other  general 
phenomena  common  to  London  as  a  whole,  with  the  result 
that  it  was  found  to  have  shared  with  the  rest  of  London  a 
previous  long  continued  absence  of  rain,  a  high  state  of 
temperature  both  of  the  air  and  of  the  Thames,  an  unusual 
stagnation  of  the  lower  strata  of  the  atmosphere,  highly 
favorable  to  its  acquisition  of  impurity,  and  although  it 
was  impossible  to  fix  the  precise  share  which  each  of 
the  conditions  enumerated  might  separately  have  had  in 
favoring  the  spread  of  cholera,  the  whole  history  of  that 
malady,  as  well  as  of  the  epidemic  of  1854  and  indeed  of 
the  plague  of  past  epochs,  justifies  the  supposition  that 
their  combined  operation,  either  by  favoring  a  general 
impurity  in  the  air  or  in  some  other  way,  concurred  in  a 
decided  manner,  last  summer  and  autumn  (1854)  to  give 
temporary  activity  to  the  special  causes  of  that  disease. 
The  inquiry  committee  did  not,  however,  rest  satisfied 
with  these  vague  speculations  and  conclusions,  but  as  pre- 
viously shown  in  the  history  of  this  local  outbreak,  the 
resulting  mortality  was  so  disproportioned  to  that  in  the 
rest  of  the  metropolis  and  more  particularly  to  that  in  the 
immediately  surrounding  districts,  that  we  must  seek  more 
narrowly  and  locally  for  some  peculiar  conditions,  which 
may  help  to  explain  this  serious  visitation. 

Accordingly  special  inquiries  were  made  within  the 
district  involved  in  regard  to  its  elevation  of  site,  soil  and 
subsoil,  including  an  extended  inquiry  into  the  history  of 
a  pest  field  said  to  have  been  located  within  this  area  in 
1665,  1666,  to  which  some  had  attributed  the  cholera  of 
1854;  surface  and  ground  plan;  streets  and  courts;  density 
of  population;  character  of  the  population;  dwelling 
houses;  internal  economy  as  to  space,  light,  ventilation  and 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  95 

general  cleanliness;  dust  bins  and  accumulations  in  yards, 
cellars  and  areas;  cesspools,  closets  and  house  drains; 
sewers,  their  water  flow  and  atmospheric  connection ;  public 
water  supply  and  well  water  supply.  No  peculiar  condi- 
tion or  adequate  explanation  of  the  origin  of  the  epidemic 
was  discovered  in  any  of  these,  even  after  the  most  search- 
ing inquiry,  except  in  the  well  water  supply.  Abundant 
general  defects  were  found  in  the  other  sanitary  factors, 
but  nothing  peculiar  to  the  cholera  area,  or  if  peculiar, 
common  to  those  attacked  by  the  disease,  could  be  found 
excepting  the  water  supply. 

At  the  very  beginning  of  the  outbreak,  Dr.  John  Snow, 
with  commendable  energy,  had  taken  the  trouble  to  get 
the  number  and  location  of  the  fatal  cases,  as  is  stated  in 
his  own  report: 

"I  requested  permission,  on  the  5th  of  September,  to 
take  a  list,  at  the  general  register  office,  of  the  deaths 
from  cholera  registered  during  the  week  ending  the  226. 
of  September,  in  the  subdistricts  of  Golden  Square  and 
Berwick  Street,  St.  James'  and  St.  Anne's,  Soho,  which 
was  kindly  granted.  Eighty-nine  (89)  deaths  from  cholera 
were  registered  during  the  week  in  the  three  subdistricts, 
of  these  only  six  (6)  occurred  on  the  first  four  days  of  the 
week,  four  occurred  on  Thursday,  August  31,  and  the 
remaining  79  on  Friday  and  Saturday.  I  considered  there- 
fore that  the  outbreak  commenced  on  the  Thursday,  and  I 
made  inquiry  in  detail  respecting  the  83  deaths  registered 
as  having  taken  place  during  the  last  three  days  of  the 
week. 

On  proceeding  to  the  spot  I  found  that  nearly  all  the 
deaths  had  taken  place  within  a  short  distance  of  the  pump 
in  Broad  Street.  There  were  only  ten  deaths  in  houses 
situated  decidedly  nearer  to  another  street  pump.  In  five 
of  these  cases  the  families  of  the  deceased  persons  told  me 
that  they  always  sent  to  the  pump  in  Broad  Street,  as  they 
preferred  the  water  to  that  of  the  pump  which  was  nearer. 
In  three  other  cases  the  deceased  were  children  who  went 
to  school  near  the  pump  in  Broad  Street.     Two  of  them 


96  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

were  known  to  have  drunk  the  water  and  the  parents  of 
the  third  think  it  probable  that  it  did  so.  The  other  two 
deaths  beyond  the  district  which  the  pump  supplies,  repre- 
sent only  the  amount  of  mortality  from  cholera  that  was 
occurring  before  the  eruption  took  place. 

With  regard  to  the  73  deaths  occurring  in  the  locality 
belonging,  as  it  were,  to  the  pump,  there  were  61  instances 
in  which  I  was  informed  that  the  deceased  persons  used  to 
drink  the  water  from  the  pump  in  Broad  Street,  either 
constantly  or  occasionally.  In  six  (6)  instances  I  could  get 
no  information,  owing  to  the  death  or  departure  of  every 
one  connected  with  the  deceased  individuals ;  and  in  six  (6) 
cases  I  was  informed  that  the  deceased  persons  did  not 
drink  the  pump  water  before  their  illness. 

The  result  of  the  inquiry  consequenily  was  that 
there  had  been  no  particular  outbreak  or  increase  of  cholera 
in  this  part  of  London,  except  among  the  persons  who 
were  in  the  habit  of  drinking  the  water  of  the  above 
mentioned  pump  well. 

I  had  an  interview  with  the  Board  of  Guardians  of  St. 
James'  Parish  on  the  evening  of  Thursday,  7th  of  Septem- 
ber, and  represented  the  above  circumstances  to  them.  In 
consequence  of  which  the  handle  of  the  pump  was  removed 
on  the  following  day. 

The  additional  facts  that  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain 
are  in  accordance  with  those  related  above,  and  as  regards 
the  small  number  of  those  attacked,  who  were  believed 
not  to  have  drunk  the  water  from  the  Broad  Street  pump, 
it  must  be  obvious  that  there  are  various  ways  in  which  the 
deceased  persons  may  have  taken  it  without  the  knowledge 
of  their  friends.  The  water  was  used  for  mixing  with 
spirits  in  some  of  the  public  houses  around.  It  was  used 
likewise  at  dining  rooms  and  coffee  shops.  The  keeper 
of  a  coffee  shop  which  was  frequented  by  mechanics  and 
where  the  pump  water  was  supplied  at  dinner  time, 
informed  us  on  the  6th  of  September  that  she  was  already 
aware  of  nine  of  her  customers  who  were  dead." 

On  the  other  hand.  Dr.  Swan  discovered  that  while  a 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  97 

workhouse  (almshouse)  in  Poland  Street  was  three-fourths 
surrounded  by  houses  in  which  cholera  deaths  occurred, 
out  of  525  inmates  of  the  workhouse,  only  five  cholera 
deaths  occurred.  The  workhouse,  however,  had  a  well  of 
its  own  in  addition  to  the  city  supply,  and  never  sent  for 
water  to  the  Broad  Street  pump.  If  the  cholera  mortality 
in  the  workhouse  had  been  equal  to  that  in  its  immediate 
vicinity,  it  would  have  had  50  deaths. 

A  brewery  in  Broad  Street  employing-  seventy  work- 
men was  entirely  exempt,  but  having  a  well  of  its  own,  and 
allowances  of  malt  liquor  having  been  customarily  made 
to  the  employees,  it  appears  likely  that  the  proprietor  was 
right  in  his  belief  that  resort  was  never  had  to  the  Broad 
Street  well. 

It  was  quite  otherwise  in  a  cartridge  factory  at  No.  38 
Broad  Street,  where  about  two  hundred  work  people  were 
employed,  two  tubs  of  drinking  water  having  been  kept  on 
the  premises  and  always  filled  from  the  Broad  Street 
pump.  Among  these  employees  eighteen  died  of  cholera. 
Similar  facts  were  elicited  for  other  factories  on  the  same 
street,  all  tending  to  show  that  in  general  those  who  drank 
the  water  from  the  Broad  Street  pump  well  suffered  either 
from  cholera  or  diarrhoea,  while  those  who  did  not  drink 
that  water  escaped.  The  whole  chain  of  evidence  was 
made  absolutely  conclusive  by  several  remarkable  and 
striking  cases,   like  the  following: 

"A  gentleman  in  delicate  health  was  sent  for  from 
Brighton  to  see  his  brother  at  No.  6  Poland  Street,  who 
was  attacked  by  cholera  and  died  in  twelve  hours,  on  the 
I  St  of  September.  The  gentleman  arrived  after  his 
brother's  death,  and  did  not  see  the  body.  He  only  stayed 
about  twenty  minutes  in  the  house,  where  he  took  a  hasty 
and  scanty  limcheon  of  rump  steak,  taking  with  it  a  small 
tumbler  of  cold  brandy  and  water,  the  water  being  from 
Broad  Street  pump.  He  went  to  Pentonville,  was  attacked 
with  cholera  on  the  evening  of  the  following  day,  Septem- 
ber 2d,  and  died  the  next  evening. 

The   death   of  Mrs.  E.  and  her  niece,  who   drank   the 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


water  from  Broad  Street  at  the  West  End,  Hampstead, 
deserves  especially  to  be  noticed.  I  was  informed  by 
Mrs.  E.  's  son  that  his  mother  had  not  been  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Broad  Street  for  many  months.  A  cart  went  from 
Broad  Street  to  West  End  every  day,  and  it  was  the  cus- 
tom to  take  out  a  large  bottle  of  the  water  from  the  pump 
in  Broad  Street,  as  she  preferred  it.  The  water  was  taken 
out  on  Thursday,  the  31st  of  August,  and  she  drank  of  it 
in  the  evening  and  also  on  Friday.  She  was  seized  with 
cholera  on  the  evening  of  the  latter  day,  and  died  on 
Saturday.  A  niece  who  was  on  a  visit  to  this  lady  also 
drank  of  the  water.  She  returned  to  her  residence,  a  high 
and  healthy  part  of  Islington,  was  attacked  with  cholera, 
and  died  also.  There  was  no  cholera  at  this  time  either  at 
West  End  or  in  the  neighborhood  where  the  niece  died. 
Besides  these  two  persons  only  one  servant  partook  of  the 
water  at  West  End,  Hampstead,  and  she  did  not  suffer,  at 
least  not  severely.     She  had  diarrhoea." 

Dr.  Snow's  inquiry  into  the  cases  of  cholera  which 
were  nearer  other  pumps  showed  that  in  most  the  victims 
had  preferred,  or  had  access  to,  the  water  of  the  Broad 
Street  well,  and  in  only  a  few  cases  was  it  impossible  to 
trace  any  connection  with  the  pump.  Finally,  Dr.  Snow 
made  a  statistical  statement  of  great  value  which  is  here 
given  in  its  original  form: 

Thk     Broad     Street,    London,    Well    and     Deaths    from    Asiatic 
Cholera    near    it    in    1854 


Date 

Number  of 
Fatal  Attacks 

Deaths 

August         19 
August        20 
August         21 
August        22 
August        23 
August        24 
August        25 
August        26 
August        27 
August        28 

1 
0 
2 
0 
0 
2 
0 
0 
1 
0 

HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


99 


Date 

Number  of 
Fatal  Attacks 

Deaths 

August         29 
August         30 
August        31 
September    1 
September    2 
September    3 
September    4 
September    5 
September    6 
September    7 
September    8 
September    9 
September  10 
September  11 
September  12 
September  13 
September  14 
September  15 
September  16 
September  17 
September  18 
September  19 
September  20 
September  21 
September  22 
September  23 
September  24 
September  25 
September  26 
September  27 
September  28 
September  29 
September  30 
Date  unknown 

1 

8 

56 

143 

116 

54 

46 

36 

20 

28 

12 

11 

5 

5 

1 

3 

0 

1 

4 

2 

3 

0 

0 

2 

0 
0 
0 

45 

1 

2 

4 

70 

127 

76 

71 

46 

37 

32 

30 

24 

18 

15 

6 

13 
6 
8 
6 
5 
2 
3 
0 
0 
2 
3 
0 
0 
2 
0 
2 
0 
0 
0 

616 

616 

In  addition  to  the  original  and  general  inquiry  con- 
ducted from  the  time  of  the  outbreak  by  Dr.  Snow,  the 
Rev.  H.  Whitehead,  M.  A.,  curate  of  St.  Luke's  in  Ber- 
wick Street,  and  like  Dr.  Snow,  a  member  of  the  Cholera 
Inquiry  Committee,  whose  knowledge  of  the  district  both 
before  and  during  the  epidemic,  owing  to  his  official  posi- 
tion, gave  him  unusual  advantages,  made  a  most  elaborate 
and  painstaking  house-to-house  investigation  of  one  of  the 
principal  streets  affected,  viz.,   Broad  Street  itself. 

The  Rev.  H.  Whitehead's  report,  like  that  of  Dr.  Snow, 


100 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


is  a  model  of  careful  and  extended  observation  and  study, 
cautious  generalizing  and  rigid  verification.  It  is  an  excel- 
lent instance  of  inductive  scientific  inquiry  by  a  layman  in 
sanitation.  Mr.  Whitehead  found  the  number  of  houses 
on  Broad  Street  49;  the  resident  householders  35  ;  the  total 
number  of  resident  inhabitants  896;  the  total  number  of 
deaths  among  these  90.  Deaths  among  non-residents 
(workmen,  etc.)  belonging  to  the  street,  28.  Total  deaths 
chargeable  to  this  street  alone,  118.  Only  10  houses  out 
of  49  were  free  from  cholera. 

The  dates  of  attack  of  the  fatal  cases  resident  in  this 
single  street  were  as  follows: 


Date  of  Attack 

Number  of 
Fatal  Attacks 

August      12 
August      28 
August      30 
August      31 
September  1 
September  2 
September  3 
September  4 
September  5 
September  6 
September  7 
September  8 
September  9 

1 
1 

1 

6 
26 
24 
9 
8 
6 
5 
0 
2 
1 

90 

Mr.  Whitehead's  detailed  investigation  was  not  made 
until  the  spring  of  1855,  but  in  spite  of  this  fact  it  supplied 
most  interesting  and  important  confirmatory  evidence  of 
Dr.  Snow's  theory  that  the  Broad  Street  well  was  the 
source  of  the  epidemic.  Mr.  Whitehead,  moreover,  went 
further  than  Dr.  Snow,  and  endeavored  to  find  out  how  the 
well  came  to  be  infected,  why  its  infectious  condition  was 
so  limited,  as  it  appeared  to  have  been,  and  to  answer 
various  other  questions  which  occurred  in  the  course  of  his 
inquiry.  As  a  result,  he  concluded  that  the  well  must 
have  been  most  infected  on  August  31st,  that  for  some 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


101 


LiNC  OF  FroUT 


reason  unknown  a  partial  purification  began  on  September 
2d,  and  thereafter  proceeded  rapidly.  There  was  some 
evidence  that  on  August  30th  the  water  was  much  less 
infected  than  on  the  31st,  so  that  its  dangerous  condition 
was  apparently  temporary  only.  He  further  discovered 
that  in  the  house  No.  40  Broad  Street,  which  was  the 
nearest  house  to  the  well,  there  had  been  not  only  four 
fatal  cases  of  cholera  contemporaneous  with  the  epidemic, 
but  certain  earlier  cases  of  an  obscure  nature,  which  might 
have  been  cholera,  and  that  dejecta  from  these  had  been 
thrown  without  disinfection  into  a  cesspool  very  near  the 
well.  On  his  reporting  these  facts  in  April,  1855,  to  the 
main  committee, 
Mr.  J.  York,  sec- 
retary and  sur- 
veyor to  the  com- 
mittee, was  in- 
structed to  survey 
the  locality  and 
examine  the  well, 
cesspool  and 
drains  at  No.  40 
Broad  Street.  Mr. 
York's  report  re- 
vealed a  startling 
condition  of 
affairs.  The  well 
was  circular  in  sec- 
tion, 28  feet  10 
inches  deep,  6  feet 
in  diameter,  lined 
with  brick,  and 
when  examined 
contained  7  feet 
6  inches  of  water.  It  was  arched  in  at  the  top,  dome 
fashion,  and  tightly  closed  at  a  level  3  feet  6  inches  be- 
low the  street  by  a  cover  occupying  the  crest  of  the  dome. 
The  bottom  of  the  main  drain  of  the  house  No.  40  Broad 


fT5 


C4    K 


1. 


^1^^ 


TlD 

'2-m 


\       yV WATSff  Line. 


as/at;c  cholera 

AND 

THE  BROAD  STREET  WELL  ■ 

LONDON    ia54-. 
W WELL 

d main  draim  ofhouse  no. 40. 

V'andVJLcellars  under  street. 

C Cesspool. 

R- privy: 

(after  MR. York's  original  drawings.') 


102  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

Street,  lay  9  feet  2  inches  above  the  water  level,  and  one 
of  its  sides  was  distant  from  the  brick  lining  of  the  well 
only  2  feet  8  inches.  It  was  constructed  on  the  old  fash- 
ioned plan  of  a  flat  bottom,  12  inches  wide,  with  brick  sides 
rising  about  12  inches  high,  and  covered  with  old  stones. 
As  this  drain  had  but  a  small  fall  or  inclination  outward  to 
the  main  sewer,  the  bottom  Was  covered  with  an  accumula- 
tion of  soil  deposit  about  2  inches  thick,  and  upon  clearing 
this  soil  away  the  mortar  joints  of  the  old  stone  bottom  v/ere 
found  to  be  perished,  as  was  also  all  the  jointing  of  the  brick 
sides,  which  had  brought  the  brickwork  into  the  condition 
of  a  sieve,  and  through  which  the  house  drainage  water 
must  have  percolated  for  a  considerable  period. 

After  opening  back  the  main  drain,  a  cesspool,  in- 
tended for  a  trap  but  misconstructed,  was  found  in  the 
area,  3  feet  8  inches  long  by  2  feet  6  inches  wide  and  3  feet 
deep,  and  upon  or  over  a  part  of  this  cesspool  a  common 
open  privy,  without  water  supply,  for  the  use  of  the  house, 
was  erected,  the  cesspool  being  fully  charged  with  soil. 
This  privy  was  formed  across  the  east  end  of  the  area, 
and  upon  removing  the  soil  the  brickwork  of  the  cesspool 
was  found  to  be  in  the  same  decayed  condition  as  the 
drain,  and  which  may  be  better  comprehended  by  stating 
that  the  bricks  were  easily  lifted  from  their  beds  without 
the  least  force,  so  that  any  fluid  could  readily  pass  through 
the  work,  or  as  was  the  case  when  first  opened,  over  the 
top  course  of  bricks  of  the  trap  into  the  earth  or  made 
ground,  immediately  under  and  adjoining  the  end  wall 
eastward,  this  surface  drainage  being  caused  by  the  accu- 
mulation of  soil  in,  and  the  misconstruction  of,  the  cess- 
pool. 

Thus,  therefore,  from  the  charged  condition  of  the 
cesspool,  the  defective  state  of  its  brickwork  and  also  that 
of  the  drain,  no  doubt  remains  in  my  mind  that  constant 
percolation  for  a  considerable  period  had  been  conveying 
fluid  matter  from  the  drains  into  the  well;  but  lest  any 
doubt  should  arise  on  this  subject  hereafter,  I  had  two 
spaces  of  the  brick  stemming,  2  feet  square  each,  taken  out 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  103 

of  the  inside  of  the  well,  the  first  13  feet  deep  from  the 
level  of  the  street  paving,  the  second  18  feet  deep,  and  a 
third  was  afterward  opened  still  lower,  when  the  washed 
appearance  of  the  ground  and  gravel  fully  corroborated 
the  assumption.  In  addition  thereto,  the  ground  was  dug 
out  between  the  cesspool  and  the  well  to  3  feet  below  the 
bottom  of  the  former,  and  its  black,  saturated,  swampy 
condition  clearly  demonstrated  the  fact,  as  did  also  the 
small  furrowed  appearance  of  the  underlying  gravel 
observed  from  the  inside  of  the  well,  from  which  the  fine 
sand  had  been  washed  away  during  the  process  of  filtration. 
It  was  thus  established  as  clearly  as  can  be  done  by  circum- 
stantial evidence,  that  the  great  epidemic  in  St.  James' 
Parish,  Westminster,  London,  in  1854,  was  caused  by  the 
polluted  water  of  the  Broad  Street  well,  which  for  a  very 
few  days  was  probably  infected  with  cholera  germs.  It  is 
much  less  clear  how  the  well  became  infected,  but  it  seems 
probable  that  the  dejecta  of  a  cholera  patient  found  tolera- 
bly direct  access  to  the  well  from  the  cesspool  or  drain  of  a 
house  nearby.  There  is  no  evidence  whatever  that  the 
germs  multiplied  in  the  well,  but  rather  much  evidence  that 
they  rapidly  died  out.  It  is  repeatedly  stated  in  the  report 
that  the  water  was  preferred  for  drinking  because  it  was 
cold,  i.  e.,  colder  than  the  cistern  water  derived  from 
public  water  supply  and  this  condition  would  probably 
favor  such  dying  out. 

That  the  water  had  long  been  polluted  there  can  be 
no  doubt.  There  was  evidence  of  this,  and  also  some 
evidence  that  it  was  worse  than  usual  at  the  time  when  it 
was  probably  infected.  One  consumer  spoke  of  it  as 
having  been  at  the  time  offensive  in  taste  and  odor.  It 
is  instructive  to  note  that  mere  pollution  seems  to  have 
done  no  obvious  harm.  Specific  infection,  however,  pro- 
duced Asiatic  cholera. 

Mr.  Whitehead  in  his  singularly  fair  and  candid  report 
raises  an  interesting  question,  viz:  Why,  if  an  early  and 
unrecognized  case  in  the  house  in  question  brought  about 
infection  of  the  well,  should  not  the  four  severer  cases  of 


104  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

undoubted  cholera  subsequently  in  the  same  house,  with 
no  known  change  in  the  drainage,  have  produced  even 
greater  disaster?  This  question  remains  unanswered,  ex- 
cept that  after  the  removal  of  the  pump  handle  on  the  8th 
of  September  access  to  the  well  was  shut  off,  and  during 
the  intermediate  week  the  well  may  have  been  avoided  by 
the  frightened  people;  or  owing  to  illness  less  water  may 
have  been  used  in  No.  40  Broad  Street,  so  that  the  cess- 
pool did  not  overflow,  or  some  other  condition  unknown 
may  have  been  changed." 

Following  closely  on  the  heels  of  the  report  of  the 
Cholera  Inquiry  Commission  came  an  event,  which,  though 
fraught  with  no  danger,  nevertheless  did  more  to  call 
attention  of  people  in  general  and  lawmakers  in  particular 
to  the  necessity  for  sanitary  surroundings  and  the  danger 
of  polluted  water  supply,  than  had  all  the  epidemics  of 
cholera  and  typhoid  fever  which  had  preceded.  This  event 
was  one  of  the  most  famous  stinks  recorded,  if  not  the  most 
famous,  and  arose  from  the  Thames  in  London  in  1858  and 
1859.  The  following  account  of  this  historic  stink  is  by 
Dr.  Budd.* 

"The  need  of  some  radical  modification  in  the  view 
commonly  taken  of  the  relation  which  subsists  between 
typhoid  fever  and  sewage  was  placed  in  a  very  striking 
light  by  the  state  of  the  public  health  in  London  during  the 
hot  months  of  1858  and  1859,  when  the  Thames  stank  so 
badly.  The  late  Dr.  McWilliam  pointed  out  at  the  time, 
in  fitting  and  emphatic  terms,  the  utter  inconsistency  of 
the  facts  with  the  received  notion  of  the  subject.  Never 
before  had  nature  laid  down  the  data  for  the  solution  of 
a  problem  of  this  kind  in  terms  so  large,  or  wrought 
them  out  to  so  decisive  an  issue.  As  the  lesson  then  taught 
us  seems  to  be  already  well  nigh  forgotten,  I  may  perhaps 
be  allowed  to  recall  some  of  its  most  salient  points. 

The  occasion,  indeed,  as  has  already  been  hinted,  was 
no  common  one.  An  extreme  case,  a  gigantic  scale  in  the 
phenomena,  and  perfect  accuracy  in  the  registration  of  the 

*  Typhoid  Fever,  its  Nature,  Mode  of  Spreading  and  Prevention. 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  105 

results — three  of  the  best  of  all  the  guarantees  against  fal- 
lacy— were  combined  to  make  the  inductions  sure.  For 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  man,  the  sewage  of  nearly 
three  millions  of  people  had  been  brought  to  seethe  and 
ferment  under  a  burning  sun,  in  one  vast  open  cloaca  lying 
in  their  midst.  The  result  we  all  know.  Stench  so  foul 
we  may  well  believe  had  never  before  ascended  to  pollute 
this  lower  air.  Never  before  at  least  had  a  stink  risen  to 
the  height  of  an  historic  event.  Even  ancient  fable  failed 
to  furnish  figures  adequate  to  convey  a  conception  of  its 
thrice- Augean  foulness.  For  many  weeks  the  atmosphere 
of  Parliamentary  committee  rooms  was  only  rendered  barely 
tolerable  by  the  suspension  before  every  window  of  blinds 
saturated  with  chloride  of  lime,  and  by  the  lavish  use  of 
this  and  other  disinfectants.  More  than  once,  in  spite  of 
similar  precautions,  the  law  courts  were  suddenly  broken 
up  by  an  insupportable  invasion  of  the  noxious  vapor.  The 
river  steamers  lost  their  accustomed  traffic,  and  travelers 
pressed  for  time  often  made  circuit  of  many  miles  rather 
than   cross  one  of  the  city  bridges. 

For  months  together  the  topic  almost  monopolized  the 
public  prints.  Day  after  day,  week  after  week,  the  Times 
teemed  with  letters  filled  with  complaint,  prophetic  of 
calamity  or  suggesting  remedies.  Here  and  there  a  more 
than  commonly  passionate  appeal  showed  how  intensely  the 
evil  was  felt  by  those  who  were  condemned  to  dwell  on  the 
Stygian  banks.  At  home  and  abroad  the  state  of  the  chief 
river  Avas  felt  to  be  a  national  reproach.  "  India  is  in 
Revolt,  and  the  Thames  Stinks,"  were  the  two  great  facts 
coupled  together  by  a  distinguished  foreign  writer  to 
mark  the  climax  of  a  national  humiliation.  But  more  sig- 
nificant still  of  the  magnitude  of  the  nuisance  was  the  fact 
that  five  million  pounds  in  money  were  cheerfully  voted 
by  a  heavily-taxed  community  to  provide  the  means  for  its 
abatement.  With  the  popular  views  as  to  the  connection 
between  epidemic  disease  and  putrescent  gases,  this  state 
of  things  naturally  gave  rise  to  the  worst  forebodings. 

Members  of   Parliament  and  noble  lords,   dabblers  in 


106  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

sanitary  science,  vied  with  professional  sanitarians  in  pre- 
dicting pestilence.  If  London  should  happily  be  spared  the 
cholera,  decimation  by  fever  was  at  least  a  certainty.  The 
occurrence  of  a  case  of  malignant  cholera  in  the  person  of 
a  Thames  waterman,  early  in  the  summer,  was  more  than 
once  cited  to  give  point  to  these  warnings,  and  as  fore- 
shadowing what  was  to  come.  Meanwhile  the  hot  weather 
passed  away;  the  returns  of  sickness  and  mortality  were 
made  up,  and,  strange  to  relate,  the  result  showed  not  only 
a  death  rate  below  the  average,  but  as  the  leading  peculiarity 
of  the  season^  a  remarkable  diminution  in  the  prevalence  of 
fever,  diarrhoea  and  the  other  forms  of  disease  commonly 
ascribed  to  putrid  emanations." 

While  the  historical  stink  of  the  Thames  was  without 
apparent  effect  on  the  public  health,  the  nuisance  caused 
was  so  great  and  the  fear  engendered  was  so  real,  that 
much  good  was  the  immediate  result.  One  of  the  most 
lasting  and  far  reaching  benefits  was  the  appointment  by 
Parliament  of  a  Rivers  Pollution  Commission,  to  study  into 
and  devise  ways  for  the  prevention  of  pollution  of  streams, 
lakes  and  water-sheds,  from  which  public  water  supplies 
are  obtained.  In  addition  to  this,  the  stink  stimulated 
inquiry  into  the  sources  of  infection  in  cases  of  epidemic 
diseases,  and  means  for  preventing  the  spread  of  disease, 
with  such  success,  that  as  early  as  1866  it  was  decided  that 
cholera  was  a  water-borne  disease  and  that  the  cause  of 
infection,  whatever  it  was,  could  be  destroyed  by  heat. 
This  is  evidenced  by  the  signs  the  local  sanitary  authori- 
ties caused  to  be  issued  during  the  epidemic  of  Asiatic 
cholera  in  1866 : 

Cholera  Notice! 

"The  inhabitants  of  the  district  within  which  cholera 
is  prevailing  are  earnestly  advised  not  to  d?'ink  any  zvater 
which  has  not  been  boiled.'' 

Following  this,  the  Rivers  Pollution  Commission*  of 
1868  went  on  record  as  authority  for  the  statement  that 


•  Sixth  Report^  London,  1874. 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  107 

"the  existence  of  specific  poison  capable  of  producing 
cholera  and  typhoid  fever  is  attested  by  evidence  so  abun- 
dant and  strong  as  to  be  practically  irresistible.  These 
poisons  are  contained  in  the  discharges  from  the  bowels  of 
persons  suffering  from  these  diseases."  So  it  was  that  close 
observation  and  rigid  inquiry  discovered  the  truths  that 
discharges  from  bowels  of  persons  suffering  from  intestinal 
diseases  contain  the  specific  poison  of  the  disease;  that 
these  discharges,  mixed  with  the  sewage  of  cities,  often 
found  their  way  into  water  supplies,  and  thus  caused  an 
epidemic  of  the  same  disease,  and  that  boiling  of  water 
before  drinking  would  destroy  the  infection,  thus  rendering 
it  harmless.  These  truths  stand  to-day  and  the  same 
means  of  prevention  are  resorted  to  in  time  of  danger  that 
were  recommended  during  the  epidemic  of  cholera  in  Lon- 
don in  1866.  We  know  now,  however,  thanks  to  the  inves- 
tigations of  Louis  M.  Pasteur,  that  all  that  class  of  disease 
which  he  designated  as  zymotic,  are  caused  by  little  micro- 
scopic vegetation  which  gain  lodgment  in  the  body  where 
they  grow,  multiply  and  thrive  at  the  expense  of  the  host; 
and  knowing  the  specific  cause  of  a  disease  makes  it  more 
easy  to  fight  to  prevent  and  to  cure. 


From  Stereograph,  copyright  1S99  by  Underwood  &   Underwood,  N.   Y.  (See  page  iv) 


Synopsis  of  Chapter.  Introduction  of  Water  Filters— Striking  Example  of 
their  Efficiency  and  Value— Cholera  at  Altona  and  Hamburg — Purification  of  Sew- 
age— The  Automatic  Scavenger  of  Mouras— Investigations  of  the  Massachusetts 
State  Board  of  Health— Garbage  Destruction. 

AS  the  suburban  population  around  London,  England, 
grew  and  occupied  the  drainage  area  from  which  the 
London  water  supply  was  obtained,  just  in  such  pro- 
portion was  the  water  supply  polluted,  and  London  was  early 
forced  to  devise  measures  for  purifying  an  already  polluted 
water;  so  it  is  that  as  early  as  1839  London  was  filtering  part 
of  the  water  derived  from  surface  sources,  and  so  successful 
were  the  early  attempts  that  at  the  present  time  although 
London  is  supplied  with  water  by  eight  separate  water  com- 
panies, all  of  the  water  used  within  its  confines  which  is  de- 
rived from  rivers,  lakes  or  streams,  is  filtered  before  delivery 
into  the  distributing  mains.  Europe  was  not  slow  to  grasp 
the  value  of  filtration,  and  at  the  present  time  most  cities  of 
importance  in  Continental  Europe  have  slow  sand  filters, 
while  America,  or  at  least  the  United  States,  which  is  re- 
puted to  adopt  almost  immediately  anything  which  possesses 
merit,  had  constructed  no  filters  as  late  as  1880,  and  to-day 
can  number  but  few.  A  striking  illustration  of  the  value  of 
filtration  for  sterilizing  an  infected  water  supply  can  be 
instanced  in  the  cholera  epidemic  of  Hamburg,  Germany. 
On  the  river  Elbe,  some  miles  from  the  sea,  there  are 
three  cities  adjoining  and  forming  in  appearance  one  large 
city  of  800,000  inhabitants,  the  combined  sewage  of  which 
is  discharged  into  the  river  Elbe.     The  water  supply  to  the 


100 


110 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


city  of  Hamburg,  a  free  German  city,  with  a  population  of 
640,400,  is  derived  from  the  Elbe  above  where  the  sewas- 
is  discharged  into  the  river  but  not  sufficiently  far  away  to 
escape  contamination  from  a  recision  of  polluted  water  at 
flood  tide.     This  water  after  some  imperfect  sedimentation 

passes  direct  to  the 
consumer  without 
filtration.  The 
supply  of  water  to 
Wandsbeck,  a  city 
of  20,000  popula- 
tion, is  obtaineu 
from  a  lake  which 
is  unexposed  to 
contamination  and 
is  filtered  before 
being  delivered  to 
the  mains.  The 
supply  to  Altona, 
on  the  other  hand, 
a  Prussian  city  of 
143,000  inhabi- 
tants, is  obtained 
from  theriver  Elbe 
at  a  point  about  8 
miles  below  where 
itreceives  the  com- 
bined sewage  of 
the  three  cities, 
with  their  popu- 
lation of  over 
800,000.  It  will 
thus  be  seen  that 
the  source  of  sup- 
ply to  Altona  is  the  worst  of  the  three.  This  most  grossly 
polluted  supply,  however,  is  filtered  with  exceeding  care 
before  delivery  to  the  consumers,  and  to  this  fact  is  attrib- 
uted the  freedom  from  cholera  that  visited   Hamburg  in 


Boundary  line  indicated  by  line  of  dashes. 
Cases  of  cholera  by  solid  circles. 
Cases    of    cholera    imported    from    Hamburg 
circles. 

Water  mains  in  Hamburg  streets  by  black  lines. 


by 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  111 

1892.     The  Story  is  well  told  by  Dr.  Thorne,  medical  officer 

"  the  London  Local  Government  Board.* 

"The  different  behavior  of  Hamburg  and  Altona  as 
regards  cholera  is  extremely  interesting.  The  two  towns 
adjoin;  they  are  practically  one  city.  The  division  be- 
tween the  two  is  no  more  obvious  than  that  between  two 
densely  peopled  London  parishes,  and  yet  a  spot  map 
indicating  the  houses  which  were  attacked  with  cholera, 
which  was   shown  to  me  by  Professor   Koch,  points  out 

learly  that  whereas  the  disease  prevailed  in  epidemic  form 
on  the  Hamburg  side  of  the  boundary  line,  that  line  running 
m  and  out  among  the  streets  and  houses  and  at  times 
passing  diagonally  through  the  houses  themselves,  formed 
the  limit  beyond  which  the  epidemic,  as  such,  did  not 
extend.  The  dots  on  one  side  of  the  dividing  line  were 
■'oroof  of  the  epidemicity  of  cholera  in  Hamburg,  their 
comparative  absence  on  the  Altona  side  of  it  was  proof  of 
the  absence  of  the  epidemic  in  Altona.  To  use  Professor 
Koch's  own  words:  'Cholera  in  Hamburg  went  right  up 
to  the  boundary  of  Altona  and  then  stopped.  In  one 
street,  which  for  a  long  way  forms  the  boundary,  there  was 
cholera  on  the  Hamburg  side,  whereas  on  the  Altona  side 
was  free  from  it,  and  yet  there  was  one  detectable  difference, 
and  one  only,  between  the  two  adjacent  areas — they  had 
different  water  services.'  Professor  Koch  has  collected  cer- 
tain proofs  which  he  regards  as  crucial  on  this  point,  and 
Dr.  Reincke  has  supplied  me  with  a  small  plan  in  support  of 
the  contention.  At  one  point  close  to  and  on  the  Hamburg 
side  of  the  boundary  line  between  Hamburg  and  Altona,  is 
a  large  yard,  known  as  the  Hamburger- Platz.  It  contains 
two  rows  of  large  and  lofty  dwellings,  containing  72  sepa- 
rate tenements  and  some  400  people,  belonging  almost 
wholly  to  those  classes  who  suffered  most  from  cholera 
elsewhere  in  Hamburg.  But  while  cholera  is  shown  by  the 
spot  map  to  have  prevailed  all  around,  not  a  single  case 
occurred  among  the  many  residents  of  this  court  during  the 
whole  epidemic.     And  why?     Professor  Koch  explains  that 

*  Cholera  Prospects  and  Prevention. 


112 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


owing  to  local  difficulties,  water  from  the  Hamburg  mains 
could  not  easily  be  obtained  for  the  dwellings  in  question, 
and  hence  a  supply  had  been  laid  in  from  one  of  the  Altona 
mains  in  an  adjacent  street.  This  was  the  only  part  of 
Hamburg  which  received  Altona  water,  and  I  am  informed 
that  it  was  the  only  spot  in  Hamburg  in  which  was  aggre- 
gated a  population  of  the  class  in  question,  which  escaped 
the  cholera.  At  the  date  of  my  visit  to  Hamburg,  a  notice 
board  was  affixed  at  the  entrance  to  this  court.  It  stated 
that  certain  tenements  were  to  let;  but,  above  all,  in  large 
type,  and  as  an  inducement  to  intending  tenants,  was  the 
announcement  that  the  court  was  not  only  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  Hamburg,  with  the  privileges  still  attach- 
ing to  the  old  Hanseatic  cities,  but  that  it  had  a  supply  of 
Altona  water. 

During  the  epidemic  the  deaths  in  the  several  cities 
were : 


Population 

Deaths 

Deaths  per 

10,000 
Inhabitants 

Hamburg       ...... 

Altona 

Wandsbeck 

640,000 

143,000 

20,000 

8,605 

828 

43 

134.4 
23.0 
22.0 

That  infectious  matter  was  communicated  to  the  Elbe 
water  from  Hamburg  is  not  in  any  way  a  hypothesis. 
Cholera  germs  had  been  as  a  fact  found  in  the  Elbe  water. 
They  were  found  a  little  below  the  place  where  the  Ham- 
burg main  sewer  flows  into  the  Elbe.  They  were  also 
found  in  one  of  the  two  Altona  basins  into  which  the  water 
flowed  before  filtration. " 

No  more  striking  example  could  be  found,  demonstrat- 
ing on  a  large  scale  the  efficiency  of  filtration  as  a  preven- 
tive of  water-borne  diseases  than  that  of  the  cholera  epi- 
demic of  Hamburg  in  1892,  yet,  at  the  present  writing, 
there  are  people  holding  public  offices  throughout  the 
United  States  who  do  not  believe  in  the  value  of  filtration 
as  a  public  prophylactic,  or  who  are  so  indifferent  as  not  to 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  113 

advocate  its  adoption.  Nor  is  this  disbelief  confined  to 
public  officials;  many  there  are.  outside  of  public  office  who 
have  made  no  study  of  sanitation  and  cannot  believe  that 
merely  passing  water  downward  through  sand  will  purify 
it,  and  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  wish  to  be  better 
informed,  the  story  of  the  Hamburg  epidemic  of  cholera, 
together  with  the  part  played  by  filters  in  saving  Altona 
from  a  worse  visitation,   cannot  be  too  often  told. 

It  is  but  natural  that,  suspicion  having  once  fallen  on 
water  as  a  source  or  vehicle  of  disease,  means  would  be 
adopted  not  only  to  properly  sterilize  water  before  deliver- 
ing it  to  the  public,  but,  furthermore,  to  select  the  source 
of  supply  where  there  was  least  danger  of  contamination 
from  filth.  By  this  time  public  water  supplies  had  pro- 
gressed to  such  a  stage  that  but  few  towns,  cities  or  villages 
of  any  importance  were  without  a  municipal  plant.  Fur- 
ther, most  cities  of  any  importance  had  a  more  or  less  com- 
plete system  of  sewers,  and  the  filth  from  these  sewers  was 
discharging  freely,  and  in  the  crude  state,  into  the  streams 
and  rivers  of  the  realm.  Such  a  condition  of  affairs  could 
not  last  long  without  causing  a  nuisance,  as  well  as  becom- 
ing a  menace  to  the  health  of  the  commonwealth,  and  it 
was  not  long  before  the  problem  was  discussed  of  purifying 
the  sewage  before  discharging  it  into  streams  and  rivers. 
In  Great  Britain,  the  pollution  of  streams  was  felt  more 
keenly  than  in  America.  The  population  along  the  rivers 
in  Great  Britain  is  quite  dense,  and  the  rivers,  which  are 
comparatively  small,  are  used  as  sources  of  supply  for  the 
different  municipalities  along  the  banks,  so  that  some 
means  had  to  be  devised  to  prevent  the  people  up  stream 
from  polluting  and  perhaps  infecting  it  for  those  lower 
down.  So  early  as  1840,  this  matter  forced  itself  on  the 
attention  of  Parliament,  and  in  1843,  a  royal  commission, 
the  Health  of  Towns  Commission,  was  appointed  to  inquire 
into  the  present  state  of  large  towns  and  populous  districts. 
This  was  followed  in  1857  by  the  Sewage  of  Towns  Com- 
mission, a  royal  commission  appointed  to  inquire  into  the 
best  means  of  distributing  the  sewage  of  towns,  and  in  1865 


114  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

by  the  Rivers  Pollution  Commission,  a  royal  commission 
appointed  to  inquire  into  the  best  means  of  preventing  the 
pollution  of  rivers. 

Progress  was  not  at  a  standstill  during  this  time,  how- 
ever, but,  on  the  contrary,  chemical  precipitation  of  sewage 
and  purification  by  the  application  to  land  were  striving 
with  each  other  for  supremacy.  Up  to  that  time,  the 
important  part  that  bacteria  play  in  the  reduction  of 
organic  matter  was  not  understood,  and  instead  of  affording 
every  advantage  for  the  decomposition  and  fermentation  of 
organic  matter  under  the  least  objectionable  conditions,  the 
principal  efforts  of  those  interested  in  the  problem  were  to 
prevent  or  put  off  as  long  as  possible  the  septic  action 
of  sewage.  It  was  not  until  so  late  as  the  year  1880  that 
attention  was  turned  toward  the  possibility  of  the  micro- 
organisms in  sewage.  In  that  year  Dr.  Mueller  took  out  a 
patent  endeavoring  to  utilize  the  micro-organism  in  sewage 
for  the  purpose  of  purification.  According  to  Dr.  Mueller's 
views,  "The  contents  of  sewage  are  chiefly  of  organic 
origin,  and  in  consequence  of  this  an  active  process  of 
decomposition  takes  place  in  sewage  through  which  the 
organic  matters  are  dissolved  into  mineral  matters,  or,  in 
short,  are  mineralized,  and  thus  become  fit  to  serve  as  food 
for  plants.  To  the  superficial  observer,  however,  it  is 
chiefly  a  process  of  digestion,  in  which  the  various,  mostly 
microscopically  small,  animal  and  vegetable  organisms 
utilize  the  organically  fixed  power  for  their  life  purpose. 

"The  decomposition  of  sewage  in  its  various  stages  is 
characterized  by  the  appearance  of  enormous  numbers  of 
spirilla,  then  of  vibrios  (swarming  spores)  and,  finally,  of 
moulds.  At  this  stage  commences  the  reformation  of 
organic  substance  with  the  appearance  of  chlorophyl- 
holding  protococcus. " 

About  the  same  time,  December,  1881,  the  account  of 
Mouras's  automatic  scavenger  was  published  in  France. 
Mouras  had  been  working  and  experimenting  along  the 
same  lines  as  Dr.  Mueller,  and  the  result  was  an  apparatus 
consisting  of  a  closed   vessel  or  vault,  with  a  water  se^. 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  115 

which  rapidly  changed  excrementatious  matter  into  a 
homogeneous  fluid,  only  slightly  turbid,  and  holding  the 
solid  matters  in  suspension  in  the  form  of  scarcely  visible 
filaments.  The  principle  claimed  for  his  automatic  scaven- 
ger by  Mouras  was  that  animal  dejecta  within  themselves 
contained  all  the  principles  of  fermentation  necessary  to 
liquefy  them. 

The  teachings  of  Dr.  Mueller  and  Mouras  went  un- 
heeded for  a  long  time,  on  account  of  the  chemical  processes 
then  in  vogue.  It  was  maintained  by  those  who  were  sup- 
posed to  know,  that  lime  and  other  antiseptic  substances 
were  particularly  valuable  in  sewage  purification,  because 
they  destroyed  living  organisms,  such  as  bacteria,  which  give 
rise  to  putrefaction  and  fermentation.  They  contended 
that  if  all  the  organisms  could  be  destroyed,  that  sewage 
would  be  rendered  unobjectionable.  So  conditions  stood 
when  in  January,  1887,  Mr.  Dibden  read  a  paper  before  the 
Institute  of  Civil  Engineers,  in  which  he  pointed  out  that 
the  very  essence  of  sewage  purification  was  not  the  destruc- 
tion of  bacterial  life,  but  the  resolution  of  organic  matter 
into  other  combinations  by  the  agency  of  the  micro-organ- 
isms. He  pointed  out,  further,  that  a  septic  and  not  an 
antiseptic  action  was  what  was  wanted,  consequently  any 
process  which  arrested  the  activity  of  the  bacteria  was  the 
reverse  of  what  was  desired.  Dibden's  paper  had  the  effect 
of  turning  investigation  in  the  right  direction,  but  a  world 
of  experimenting  on  a  practical  scale  would  be  necessary 
before  the  practice  of  sewage  purification  could  be  estab- 
lished on  a  safe,  sound  and  scientific  footing.  It  remained 
for  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health  to  conduct 
those  investigations,  and  so  thoroughly  was  it  accomplished 
that  the  records  of  their  experiments  furnish  the  basis  for 
sewage  purification  practice  in  the  United  States.  The 
experiments  have  been  carried  on  since  1887,  and  the 
thoroughness  and  value  of  these  investigations  can  be  judged 
by  the  fact  that  during  one  period  of  twenty-two  months 
four  thousand  chemical  examinations  were  made  in  addition 
.0  the  microscopic  examinations. 


116  HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 

Following  the  historic  investigations  of  the  Massachu- 
setts State  Board  of  Health,  numerous  engineers  and  in- 
vestigators corhmenced  applying  to  practice  the  principles 
there  laid  down,  and  with  such  good  results  that  there  are 
upwards  of  200  purification  plants  in  the  United  States  to- 
day, and  in  Pennsylvania  alone  plans  are  under  way 
at  the  present  time  for  over  one  hundred  sewage  disposal 
works.  Such  a  showing  is  encouraging,  and  leads  to  the 
hope  that  within  a  decade  no  city  of  any  importance  within 
the  States  will  be  pouring  impurified  sewage  into  public 
streams  or  lakes. 

Up  to  within  the  last  quarter  century  no  thought  was 
given  in  the  United  States  to  the  disposal  or  destruction  of 
the  grosser  particles  which  make  up  the  waste  of  a  large 
city,  nor  was  provision  made  at  sanatoria,  hospitals  and 
like  institutions  for  the  destruction  of  materials  which 
might  prove  infectious;  yet,  no  less  important  than  the 
removal  of  sewage  by  water  carriage  is  the  systematic  col- 
lection and  subsequent  destruction  of  all  matter  of  no  value 
which  might  prove  a  vehicle  of  disease,  if  a  clean,  sanitary 
environment  is  to  be  maintained.  The  necessity  for  such 
removal  and  destruction  was  first  felt  in  hospitals,  sana- 
toria, barracks  and  camps,  where  many  people  are  brought 
together  under  unusual  circumstances,  and  infective  mat- 
ter is  liable  to  accumulate,  thereby  proving  a  menace  to 
the  community.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the 
desirability  of  destroying  such  accumulated  wastes  was 
first  brought  home  to  the  medical  staff  connected  with 
military  service,  and  that  the  medical  authorities  should  be 
connected  with  the  British  army. 

The  first  garbage  destructor,  or  garbage  furnace,  of 
which  there  is  any  record,  was  constructed  about  i860,  at 
Gibraltar,  for  the  exclusive  destruction  by  fire  of  all  waste 
matter  from  the  British  garrison.  In  the  United  States, 
likewise,  it  was  at  the  army  posts  where  the  need  for  waste 
destructors  was  first  felt,  and  in  1885  Lieutenant  H.  I. 
Reilly,  U.  S.  A.,  built  the  first  American  garbage  furnace 
at  Governor's  Island,  New  York  Harbor.      From  that  time 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


117 


on,  the  value  of  garbage  destructors  became  more  widely 
known,  and  within  recent  years  the  need  for  a  sanitary  and 
convenient  method  for  disposing  of  waste  matters  has  been 
occupying  the  attention  of  those  in  charge  of  institutions 
devoted  to  the  care  of  the  sick,  infirm,  feeble,  and  to  the 
control  of  the  criminal.  In  addition  to  the  superintendents 
of  hospitals,  prisons,  sanatoria  and  asylums,  those  in  charge 
of  medical  schools  and  laboratories,  hotels,  business  houses 
and  municipalities  have  given  the  matter  much  considera- 
tion, and  at  the  present  time  most  of  the  large  cities  of  the 
United  States  have  constructed  garbage  destructors,  or 
are  seriously  considering  the  step,  while  the  principal  hos- 
pitals, hotels,  department  stores,  medical  colleges  and  pub- 
lic institutions  throughout  the  country  have  already  in- 
stalled destructors.  Likewise,  garbage  destructors  have 
been  constructed  at  all  of  the  United  States  Government 
army  posts. 


'Tjnrmaxnje 


rnrmnmi «  ■  1 1  i  »'i  ■  i  i  mjjLmM.MJLMMJcmjDaut 


■jrjr.xiuLUULi.iXEK 


MODERN 
^RECENT 
PLVMBING 
FIXTVRE3 


Passing  of  the  Marble  Lavatory — Public  Bath  Houses— Public  Wash 
Houses — Public  Comfort  Stations— Conclusion 

NO  history  of  sanitation  would  be  complete  without 
touching-  upon  the  plumbing  fixtures  in  buildings,  and 
showing  the  marked  progress  along  these  lines  within 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  It  is  only  a  little  over  a  cen- 
tury and  a  quarter  since  the  first  English  patent  was  granted 
for  a  water  closet.  That  was  in  the  year  1775,  and  was  issued 
to  Alexander  Cummings,  who,  strange  to  say,  was  a  watch- 
maker. This  closet  was  the  first  one  patented  which  had 
what  is  known  as  a  trap  to  contain  water  for  a  seal.     Three 


119 


A  Bath  Room  of  the  Early  70's 


120 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


One  Stage  in  the  Evolution  of  the  Porcelain 
Enamel  Bath 


years  later  a  patent  was  issued  to  Joseph  Bramah,  inventor 
of  the  hydraulic  press,  for  a  water  closet  with  a  valve  at  the 

bottom.  Little 
progress  was 
made  in  the  im- 
provement  of 
water  closets  dur- 
ing the  next  half 
century,  and  when 
in  the  year  1833 
the  first  American 
patent  was  taken 
out  the  art  had 
not  advanced  very  far.  Indeed,  it  might  be  said  that  until 
the  time  of  the  filing  of  the  application  for  the  Fraim  and 
Neff  patent,  for  a  siphon  closet,  that  a  real  cleanly  and 
sanitary  type  of  closet  was  not 
on  the  market. 

Bath  tubs  and  lavatories  have 
improved  as  much  in  appearance 
in  the  time  that  has  elapsed  as 
have  water  closets.  The  earliest 
bath  tubs  of  which  we  have  any 
knowledge  were  hewn  out  of  mar- 
ble. Later,  when  bath  tubs  came 
into  rather  extensive  use  in  the 
United  States,  they  were  made  of 
wood,  lined  with  either  sheet  zinc 
or  sheet  copper,  tinned  on  one 
side,  and  it  is  only  within  com- 
paratively recent  years  that  por- 
celain enameled  tubs  came  into 
use,  and  that  solid  porcelain  tubs 
were  manufactured  in  this  coun- 
try. Open  plumbing  was  unheard 
of  twenty-five  years  ago  and  in 
its  stead  plumbing  fixtures  were  a  siop  sink  uf  Long  Ago 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


121 


-»*> 


Bath  Tub  Encased  in  Woodwork 


concealed  as  much  as  possible  by  encasing  them  in  wood- 
work of  more  or  less  ornate  designs;  at  that  time  the  lava- 
tories were  all  made  of  marble,  and  of  this  material  fully  90 
per  cent,  of  the  lavatories  were  made  up  to  abovit  the  year 
1902.     About  that 

time,      porcelain     '  r  -  ^  _     

enameled    and 
solid      porcelain 
lavatories     com- 
menced taking  the 
lead    and    worked 
a    complete    revo- 
lution in  the  design 
of   these   fixtures. 
Indeed,  so  sudden 
and  complete  was 
the  change  that  inside  of  a  year  the  marble-top  lavatories 
were    driven    as    completely   from    the  market  as  though 
they  never  existed,  and,  outside  of  old  work,  they  are  as 
much  a  curiosity  to-day  as  an  old  pan  closet. 

With    the    perfecting   and    cheapening    of    plumbing 

fixtures  came  an 
increased  demand 
for  their  use,  and 
the  attention  of 
public-minded  cit- 
izens turned  to 
means  for  provid- 
ing the  people  less 
favored  with 
worldly  riches 
with  means  for 
cleansing  the  per- 
son and  apparel. 
Liverpool,  Eng- 
land, was  the  first 
of  modern  cities  to 

An  Old  Marble-Top  Lavatory  establish      publlC 


122 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


bath  houses.  The  first  bath  in  that  city  was  established  in 
1828,  and  is  known  as  the  Pierhead.  It  contains  eleven 
private  baths,  two  vapor  baths,  one  douche,  one  plunge 
46X  27  feet,  one  plunge  40  x  27  feet,  and  two  small  private 
plunges.  In  all,  Liverpool  has  at  the  present  time  nine 
public  baths. 

Birmingham,  England,  was  next  in  point  of  time. 
It  now  has  five  bath  houses,  the  first  of  which  was  built 
on  Kent  Street,  and  opened  May  12,  185 1.  In  this  estab- 
lishment aTurkish 


bath    can   be   had 
for  a  shilling. 

London,  Eng- 
land, follows  on 
the  heels  of  Birm- 
ingham, with  elev- 
en bath  houses, 
the  first  of  which 
was  erected  in 
1854.  At  present 
municipal  London 
has  invested  over 
$2,500,000  in  pub- 
lic baths  and  laun- 
dry  establish- 
ments, which  cost 
$550,000  annually 
to  maintain. 


A  Modern  Porcelain  Enameled  Lavatory 


Provisions  for  free  public  baths  were  made  in  New 
York  in  1870  by  the  erection  of  two  floating  baths.  These 
bath  houses,  however,  could  only  be  used  during  warm 
weather,  so  could  not  be  considered,  in  the  full  sense  of  the 
word,  bathing  establishments.  The  New  York  Association 
for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  realizing  this  and 
the  lack  of  public  bathing  facilities,  undertook  to  supply 
the  deficiency  as  far  as  possible,  and  in  189 1  opened  the 
first  real  public  bath  house  in  the  United  States,  at  9 
Centre  Market  Place.     Yonkers,   N.   Y.,  however,  clai. 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION  123 

the  credit  of  being  the  first  city  in  the  United  States  to 
establish  a  municipal  bath  house,  supplied  with  hot  and 
cold  water,  open  all  the  year  round,  and  maintained  at  the 
public  expense. 

The  example  set  by  a  few  cities  has  not  been  without 
effect,  and  other  cities  in  the  United  States  have  followed 
the  lead.  It  is  noticeable,  however,  that  it  is  only  in  the 
Eastern  cities  that  public  bath  houses  are  built  and  main- 
tained at  the  city's  expense.  According  to  the  "Report 
on  Public  Baths  and  Comfort  Stations,"  Buffalo,  Boston, 
Philadelphia,  Newark  and  Trenton  each  have  one  public 


Present  Stage  in  the  Evolution  of  Porcelain  Enameled  Baths 

bath  house  and  Chicago  has  three.  Since  the  publication 
of  that  report,  however,  many  cities  both  in  the  East 
and  in  the  West  have  built  public  bath  houses  and 
many  have  built,  are  building,  or  have  planned  to  build, 
public  comfort  stations.  Indeed,  the  standard  by  which  the 
advancement  of  cities  will  be  judged  in  the  near  future  is, 
"  What  have  they  done  for  the  comfort  and  welfare  of  the 
citizens  ?  "  And  among  the  visible  evidences  of  what  they 
have  done,  standing  foremost  will  be  the  public  bath 
houses,  public  comfort  stations,  and  last,  but  not  least, 
-ic  wash  houses. 


124 


HISTORY    OF    SANITATION 


Events  of  to-day  become  history  of  to-morrow,  and  no 
history  would  be  complete  without  recounting  contempora- 
neous facts  and  events.  So  it  is  with  sanitation ;  no  history 
of  that  subject  would  be  complete  without  illustrating  a 
few  of  the  plumbing  fixtures  in  use  at  the  time  the  record 


A  Twentieth  Century  Bathroom 

was  written.  We  of  the  present  age  believe,  as  did  those 
of  a  generation  ago,  that  we  have  almost  attained  perfec- 
tion in  the  manufacture  of  plumbing  fixtures;  but  have  we, 
or  will  succeeding  generations  look  back  upon  what  we 
consider  good  as  we  do  upon  the  fixtures  in  vogue  in  the 
early  70's?  This  we  do  not  know  nor  can  we  foresee. 
Time  alone  will  tell. 


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